


Kingdom of Crowns: Changing Tides

by hunters_retreat



Series: The Kingdom of Crowns [2]
Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Character Death, F/M, Kidnapping, M/M, Polyamory, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-02
Updated: 2012-07-02
Packaged: 2018-05-06 13:44:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 32,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5419289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunters_retreat/pseuds/hunters_retreat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>  After the formal announcement of the Kandili Triune, the King and Queen Consort of Kandilihar couldn’t be happier.  Peace had settled across the Six Lakes Realm and the other nations seemed to realize that the warmongering days of Jared’s father had faded with his passing.  Jared had the Fiery Queen at his side and they were both falling more and more in love with their new husband, Jensen. The Prince Consort returned their love unabashedly and the only dark motes in their lives were the dreams that seemed to plague Jensen of late.    </p><p>A trip to his homeland should make Jensen happy, but as Jared and Jensen leave Danneel behind to rule the kingdom, nothing is as is appears; alliances are broken, new enemies appear, and the most sacred of oaths are betrayed. </p><p> </p><p>However, not all is lost.  From the rolling plains of Kandilihar, to the sparkling waters of Pelagia, and beyond to the hostile deserts of Toruga, friends are made, old alliances come to light again, and an ancient legend begins to stir the hearts of men once more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kingdom of Crowns: Changing Tides

 

[Master Art Post](http://tigs-playground.livejournal.com/7187.html)

 

 

 

 

From the high outer walls of the Kandilihar keep, the Prince Consort stared out across the rocky plains of the land he now called his own.  For the seventh son of an island kingdom, the hills and plains were exotic and intoxicating; some days they called to Jensen until he wanted to do nothing more than find his steed and ride the hills until he touched the sun.  Other days though, they were simply the background for his new life.  Today was one such day as Jensen's eyes were trained on a group of men on horseback, riding in tight formation in front of the outer walls.  Jensen had grown up hearing about the terrifying cavalrymen of Kandilihar and he had feared seeing them upon the battlefield, but those days were past.  The entirety of the Six Lake Realms had breathed easier when King Gerald had passed away without completing his mission to have the entire Realm under one king.  There had been a time of unease as his only son took the throne; the crown prince had been known as a warrior of unparalleled skill and he supported his father's wars with the fury of his horsemen.  The Six Lakes Realm, and those outside it who feared Kandilihar would turn its eyes outward if they managed to overcome all the countries in their realm, waited to see what the new king would do.  King Jared had proven to be a peaceful man though, strong enough to defend the borders of the Kandilihar nation his father had built, but unwilling to start new wars for his own personal gain.  

 

Not many people knew the king the way Jensen did though.  Jared had come to Jensen's homeland of Pelagia under a flag of treaty and the Pelagian royal family had been surprised by the man the King turned out to be.  In private, Jared had shared that he had hated his father's warmongering but refused to force his people into a civil war to end his ways.  Jared had come to court for matters of state, but it had quickly become a matter of the heart for the both of them.  Jensen had tried not to watch Jared too closely or to give away his growing attraction to the king of Kandilihar but he'd failed miserably.  As much as he'd told himself back then that it wasn't something he could have or something that he should want, he did.  And in the end, Jared had asked Jensen for his hand in marriage.

 

Jensen shook his head as he thought of the night when Jared had made his intentions clear.  Jensen's father had thrown a magnificent feast to celebrate the Queen Consort Danneel's arrival.  The court had been fascinated with the young King and his Queen Consort.  The Six Lakes Realm ruled by royalty but the Kandili kingdom was the only one that continued the archaic custom of the Triune.  To secure the throne, the King had to take a Queen Consort and Prince Consort and they ruled as one unit.  Jensen had been taken with Jared, both his personality and his appearance, and when he’d met Danneel he had been stunned by her as well.  She had been everything Jensen had heard about her; fiery and quick witted and stunning.  When Danneel and Jared had asked him back to their suites, Jensen had gone with more than a little awe for the little slip of a woman that obviously had Jared at her beck and call.  And who Jensen was certain even then had him as well.  Jared had made his intentions known after she left them alone and he'd been completely lost.  Jared and Danneel loved one another passionately and Jensen had been able to see it even then.  He didn't think he'd be able to fit into their lives the way Jared seemed to want him to and he was honest enough with himself to know that he wanted to even if he refused to live in the shadow of what Danneel and Jared had.  The next morning, Danneel had sent word to him that she would like to meet with him privately.  He'd agreed and it was with her that he realized just what his place could be with them.  With gentle hands and a compassionate heart, she spoke to him about the Kandili crown and their beliefs - still held only in Kandilihar though it had once been common practice among royalty - that the royal family was not complete without a Triune to guide it.  Jensen had taken her words to heart and he'd allowed Jared to pursue him then.  And in the end, he'd won Jensen's hand.

  
  


Not that it had been easy in the beginning, but they were settled into their life in Kandilihar now.  Jared was the same man Jensen had met when they were in Pelagia, though Jensen wished his husband had as much free time as he had then.  Still, Jensen had his own duties now and though Jensen had been trained to take over a kingdom should something ever happen to his family, he had still been the last in line to rule Pelagia.  Here in Kandilihar he had far more responsibilities as part of the ruling Triune than he'd ever have imagined he could back in Pelagia.  Especially with as much fuss as the Council made over the inclusion of a foreigner in a Triune.  Danneel had whispered in his ear during the council meeting about how they'd fought against her inclusion as well, a stable hand’s daughter, but Jared wasn't to be swayed and Jensen had watched as Jared and Danneel had managed to lead the council to the only decision they would accept.

 

A break in the formation brought Jensen from his thoughts and he watched as the horsemen began circling around to come back into the keep.  Two figures stood back, looking up at the wall and Jensen couldn't help but smile.  They were too far away to see it, but Jensen didn't doubt the answering smile on one of the figures.

 

"Looks like he finally noticed you," a voice said over his shoulder.  

  
Jensen glared back, but Murray simply smiled at him.  "It's time for lunch.  I'd assume the King needed to answer his hunger, rather than he broke practice because of me."

  
Murray's expression didn't change, but there was a wicked glint in his eye and Jensen wished he'd found a way to keep Murray from getting to know Jared so well.  "I'm sure there is a hunger to be answered, but I wouldn't assume the King would break practice for something like a meal.”

  
“You should speak better of your king,” Jensen said though he and his friend had spent many nights talking about Jared’s merits back when Jensen was being courted.  Chad Michael Murray might seem harsh and flamboyant to those that met him, but to Jensen he was the man who had trained him, from his childhood on, to be able to defend himself and his family.  When other people passed Jensen over because he was the youngest child in the royal family, Murray was there to remind him that being overlooked could be an advantage.  When people took notice of him, Murray was there to help him learn to turn that to his side as well.  Murray would never be a great diplomat but he was a masterful teacher of it.  He had watched over Jensen though he was only a few years older, and when he’d been knighted by the Pelagian king, he’d asked to take Jensen as his ward.

  
It was mostly unheard of – a practice from days long gone when the kings of the Six Lakes Realm had sworn fealty to a high king – but Murray had been adamant about the need to train Jensen as a knight.  The king had come to Jensen then and Jensen had agreed immediately.  It wasn’t that Jensen wanted to be a warrior so much as Jensen was aware, even at a young age, of the times they lived in.  They were too close to the Kandilihar border not to worry about the day when King Gerald decided to take over their small but lucrative kingdom of Pelagia.  Jensen couldn’t stand the thought of his family being helpless and he’d thrown himself into the training as he did everything else; whole heartedly and with abandon.

  
Jensen never regretted it either, not when he’d been forced to stay behind when his siblings were fostered out to different kingdoms to further their education, nor when they’d come home with exotic stories and new spouses.  Jensen had always known his life would be out of the ordinary for a prince but he could never have guessed back then that it would have turned out as it had.  

  
Murray was a large part of that and when Jensen had married the Kandili King and Queen, his protector and mentor had picked up and moved from their ocean home to the grassy plains without hesitation.

  
“I speak highly of the Prince Consort so it gives me leeway with the King.”

  
Jensen laughed at Murray’s words, but he saw the way the horsemen were moving away from the fields and decided it was time to head to the stables.  Jensen hadn’t come out with the intent of staring at his husband across the field, but he’d found himself there none the less so he might as well take advantage of the moment.  The treaties and economic contracts that were sitting on his desk would wait.  

  
“Just remember, it’s not the King you need to fear.”

  
Murray let out a bark of laughter but Jensen was walking away from the walls towards the inner city.  

  
The first time Jensen had bested Murray in a fight the older man had grinned like a loon for a week.  When Jensen beat some of the best of the Pelagian Knights, Murray had stood tall and proud, waiting for anyone to gainsay Jensen’s prowess with a weapon.  Of course, that was at the end of the long wars and even then Jensen had been kept from the heart of battle.  His family would never allow him to be a soldier in the war of their allies.  

  
And now Jensen and Murray were both scrambling to learn how to keep up with the Kandilihar knights.  They were well enough matched when it came to fighting on the ground, but Jensen and Murray had little enough experience with fighting on horseback the way the Kandilihar did.  It was intimidating to see in battle and intoxicating to watch from afar.  It was also beyond Jensen’s current skill but he was working with Kane and Carlson to learn their ways.  

  
Oddly enough, Orator Beaver had turned out to be a font of wisdom when it came to training.  The Orator had been a knight himself before King Gerald had called him from the battlefield to sit on the Kandili Council.  Jim, as he insisted on being called outside of the council, watched Jensen as he worked and advised Jensen on the best ways to turn his Pelagian training to Kandili horsemanship.  His style, as well as Murray’s, was an interesting blend of the two worlds but Jensen had yet to show Jared what he could do.  

  
Murray had bested all of Jared’s men in combat except Kane and the king himself, but Jensen held back from showing his strength to his husband.  Jared knew that Jensen had been knighted and except for a small skirmish that had happened soon after they’d married, Jared had never seen Jensen in a fight.  Part of Jensen hoped to keep it that way, but he knew that his husband might be able to sleep easier some nights if he knew exactly how well protected their wife was.  

  
Jensen arrived at the stables and they were in a flurry of activity.  The cavalrymen nodded to him in passing, use to his appearance and no longer feeling the need to bow to him, and Jensen made it quickly to the end of the stable where his husband would be heading.

  
He rounded the corner in time to see Jared’s steed come into the courtyard.  Jensen’s breath caught for a moment at the sight of the king, his long hair wind tossed and wearing a wide smile.  There was the sheen of sweat on his face and his eyes were bright and clear; a man in his true element.  He was captivating and when he turned to find Jensen waiting there his smile became warmer somehow.  

  
“Jensen?”

  
“Your Majesty,” Jensen said with a smile.  Jared shook his head but Jensen couldn’t help but think Jared looked majestic at the moment.  

  
“Please tell me there isn’t anything wrong,” Jared said as he dismounted, tossing his reins to the stable hand.  Kane was dismounting on the other side and Jensen would have been surprised as Murray walked over and took the knight’s reins for him except that Murray and Kane seemed to have come to some sort of agreement just after the announcement of the Kandilihar Triune and they worked in tandem to keep their respective royalty safe.

  
Jensen shook his head.  “Nothing is wrong.  I was out walking to clear my head and found myself on the outer walls.  I didn’t expect to find you there.  I thought you were meeting with the Torugan delegates this morning?”

  
“And thus I needed to clear _my_ head,” Jared said with a sigh.  

  
“It went that well?”  Jensen smiled as he said it but he understood Jared’s frustration.  No matter how many overtures of peace Jared made, the Torugans refused to give any formal declaration of friendship with Kandilihar.  The Torugans were a hard people; born and bred in treacherous deserts, they were tightlipped with outsiders and even the simplest business contracts were an arduous battle.  

  
Jared pulled Jensen close then and Jensen leaned up into the kiss that awaited him.  It was light and almost distracted, but Jensen knew well enough how the Torugans could get under the skin.  Jensen had dealt with them often enough for his father.  

  
“When will you meet with them again?” Jensen asked.  

  
Jared sighed.  “I’m going to get cleaned up and have some lunch then try to see them again before dinner.  Hopefully the time away will help me find a way to finish these talks and get them to sign the trade agreement.”

  
Jensen nodded.  “Let me help you,” he offered.  “I’ve dealt with them for Pelagia and it might make them feel more catered to if you have a second Triune there for the talks.”

  
“I hadn’t thought of it that way,” Jared confessed.  “Are you sure you have the time?”

  
Jensen just smiled.  “I’ll ask Danneel to entertain the orator from Pelagia this afternoon.  Orator Morgan is a good man, but he’s more concerned with finding out if I’m settling in well than in the new trade agreement he came to show us.”

  
Jared smiled then.  “I’m sure we can think of a good way to bribe our beautiful wife to do us the favor.”

  
Jensen laughed as Jared steered them back towards the castle with Murray and Kane a few strides behind them.  Danneel seemed to enjoy the company of Orator Morgan and Jensen knew she’d willingly keep the older Orator company, especially if it meant getting the Torugans to sign the agreement.  Danneel had come to start swapping favors with Jensen soon after the announcement of the Triune.  They generally went along the lines of ‘I’ll keep so and so entertained for you if you do this trick to Jared in bed tonight while I watch.’  It was possibly the oddest bargaining Jensen had ever done in his life but he and Danneel drove each other to hysterics with the things they’d come up with and Jared simply endured it all with a fond smile for his spouses.  The fact that most of their deals ended with Jared being increasingly satisfied in the bedroom meant he wasn’t complaining.

  
“She should be able to join us for lunch,” Jensen said.  “She was going to have it sent to your rooms.”

  
Jared frowned but Jensen didn’t ask about it.  He knew Jared didn’t like that Jensen considered his husband’s rooms as separate from his own.  Despite being married Jensen had never lived in the suites that Jared and Danneel had lived in before their wedding though and until he did he couldn’t consider them his own.  After Jared had his first heir though, Kandilihar tradition would allow him to move into their suite and Jensen looked forward to that day for more reasons than one.  

  
The wedding suites were Jensen’s home for now and he was happy enough there, with a room that adjoined to Danneel’s so that Jared was able to move freely between his spouse’s bed.  It was supposed to keep their beds separate until Jared’s heir was secure but Danneel and Jensen had quickly learned that it was far more fun to watch their spouses together than to lay in bed in another room and wonder.  

  
They were at Jared’s rooms before they spoke again.  When Jensen walked into the room, lunch had been set out and Danneel was sitting by one of the large windows, reading.  She looked up when he came in and she smiled, though it was obvious something was bothering her.

  
“Danneel?” he asked, hearing Jared step into the room behind him.

  
She held out the letter she was reading.  “It’s from your father.  Your family is fine but there seems to be some trouble in Pelagia.”  She handed him another letter, this one still sealed with the personal crest of the King of Pelagia.  “That one he asked to deliver just for you.”

  
Jensen passed the first letter over to Jared without looking it over.  That letter was for the ruling Triune.  Jensen took the other letter and broke the seal as he sat at the table next to Danneel.  It wasn’t long, but it was a letter from his father, reassuring Jensen that his brothers and sister were fine.  He wanted to know if Jensen was settling well into his new life and how he felt as part of the Triune.  Jensen couldn’t help but smile slightly at his father’s need to reassure himself about Jensen’s happiness even though Jensen had been informing him since the wedding more than six months prior that he was happier than he’d ever dreamed of being.  

  
His father went on past that though to warn Jensen and it was those words he ran his fingers over, trying to read between the lines his father was writing.

  
“Jensen?”

  
He looked up at Jared and sighed.  “Pirates on the Pelagian border.  We haven’t had trouble with piracy since before I was born.”

  
“He mentioned it in his letter to the Triune.  He said it was being handled though,” Jared said, though it was a question.

  
“It is but he’s suspicious of the timing.  He said that if the friends of the Kandili Triune were being attacked that the Triune itself had better be careful.”

  
Danneel let out a deep sigh.  “Jensen, pirates on the open sea isn’t new.  Other nations have long fought off pirates but Pelagia’s navy keeps them from being bothered by it often.  The latest trade agreement we settled with Pelagia and Donara might simply be too rich a cargo for them to pass by.”

  
Jensen knew she was right but he couldn’t put it out of his mind.  He got out of his chair then and dropped to his knees in front of her, placing a light kiss on her stomach before he rested his head there, arms wrapping around her.

  
Danneel’s hand stroked through his hair, calming him slightly.  “If I’d known the two of you were going to turn everything into an attack on us, I would never have told you I was with child.”

  
Jensen felt himself smiling as she said it.  “Like you would have been able to keep this a secret, Love.”

  
Danneel laughed and even though it was too early, Jensen could still swear that he could feel the mirrored mirth of a child in her womb.  

  
“What has you so worked up today?” Danneel asked.  “My brother was worried about you this morning.”

  
“Your brother was?” Jared asked.  Jensen looked up to see the amused smile on Jared’s lips.

  
“Apparently Murray is worried about Jensen, and he passed that along to my brother who has apparently taken Jensen as his charge as well.”

  
Jensen groaned.  “It was more than enough having Murray to watch over me.  I don’t think I would survive if Kane took me as ward as well.”

  
He was only teasing because it wasn’t possible to be a ward at his age and never would two knights agree to have a single ward between them in any case, but Jensen was only too aware of how overprotective both Murray and Kane were when it came to the Triune.  

  
“Ward?”

  
Jensen looked up at Danneel and saw the surprise in her eyes.  He got up and sat back down at the table as he watched Danneel and Jared share a look.  

  
“You were Murray’s ward?” Danneel asked finally.

  
“Yes.  He asked my father when he was knighted.  It was an antiquated idea, but I was never going to be king and I wanted more than to spend my days in lecture about ruling a land I would never rule.  I was spared a good deal of it by Murray’s training though I was still taught how to handle the responsibility to my people.”

  
He felt defensive about the choice his friend and father had made for him but it was an old feeling.  The few people who’d known about it over the years had reacted with a variation of fear or disdain.  

  
“You never told me,” Jared said softly.  

  
When Jensen looked up there was only awe in his husband’s voice.  “I told you I was a Pelagian Knight.  I just didn’t tell you how I came about that title.  Does it matter?”

 

“That you took up the traditions of a kingdom long dead?  That it is the kingdom I have long dreamed of seeing returned?”  Jared closed the distance between them in two quick steps and had Jensen in his arms, lips capturing him in a passionate kiss.  

  
Jensen melted against his husband and opened to him, letting the love and heat push away the fear and confusion that had been with him since he’d woken alone in their bed that morning.   When Jared pulled back, it was to take a long breath and gaze back into Jensen’s eyes in wonder.  “I have worried so much about how to protect you, and you tell me now that you are no longer Murray’s ward?”

  
Jensen smiled because in the old ways of the Jade Crown, you were a ward until you could best the knight that took you under his oath.  It was the only way to gain a knighthood if you were a ward.  “I am a knight.  Do you really believe that the means of getting there would keep you from worrying?”

  
Danneel laughed as she got out of her chair and firmly worked her way between them, her head resting on Jensen’s shoulder with Jared keeping his arms around them both.  

  
“He would worry no matter who you were, or how little danger you could possibly be in.  But considering the fact that the people who abducted you after the wedding are still on the loose, we have a right to be worried for you.”

  
Jensen’s smile softened.  Jensen was probably the only one of them who looked upon his abduction without fear and with only gratitude.  Kane had been injured and Jensen had been abducted and Jared had been hurt in the fight to free him, but in the end, their flight from the fight had sealed the distance that had once crept up between Jared and Jensen.  His marriage stood on the ground that it did today because of that one night and he could still remember, in vivid detail, every moment of their first lovemaking.

  
“I am fine.  It’s you we should be worried about.  You take too much on yourself and it’s time for you to relax,” Jensen reminded her.

  
Danneel kissed him softly for his worry and she ran her fingers over the lines around the corner of his eyes.  “Then ease my worry and tell me why you’ve been upset all day.”

  
He should have known she wouldn’t let it go.  At breakfast she’d asked and he’d passed his darkened mood off as lack of sleep.  She wasn’t going to be deterred and now that Jared had heard of it, they wouldn’t let him be until he told them.  

  
“Jensen?”

  
Jared was pushing him over to sit on the bed then and Danneel was sitting beside him with Jared sitting between his knees on the floor, looking up at him.  

  
Jensen sighed.  “It’s nothing.  I woke this morning and you were already gone so I didn’t want to bother you with it.  It was just a dream.”  He knew it wouldn’t appease them but he looked at them anyway, hoping it would.  They both wore their determination clearly to see and he took a deep breath, trying not to let the weight of the dream press back into him.  “I dreamed I was on a hill looking over the castle and the outlying fields when an army came from nowhere to surround it.  The ground was burnt and crackled as paper ash filled the sky.  Suddenly there was a roar that shook the enemy to their knees and the Pela Sea crashed in waves around the castle.  As the waves pulled back, the enemy was washed away, leaving behind the darkened scars of war.”  Jensen let out a deep breath.  “And then I woke.  I don’t know why I would have dreamt it, but I haven’t been able to get rid of the oppressive feeling of it.”

  
Jared leaned up, kissing him gently this time.  He felt Danneel moving behind him and then her head was resting on the back of his shoulder with her arms wrapped around his waist from behind.  As much as Jensen loved his husband, he’d never known how much he would come to love his wife.  In the short time he’d known them, the King and Queen Consort of Kandilihar had turned his head around and filled his heart with more love than he’d ever thought he could withstand.  

  
“Does it feel better, now that you’ve shared it?” Danneel asked softly.  

  
He nodded and Jared smiled.  “I’m certain, if you’d shared earlier we could have lightened the mood for you.  Perhaps it’s not too late though.  My Queen, do you have some thoughts on how we could help the Prince Consort leave behind these dark dreams?”

  
Danneel laughed and Jensen couldn’t help but smile as he was pushed back onto the King’s bed as his Queen lay down beside him, ready to whisper her commands into her husbands' ears.  


 

 

King Alan of Pelagia sat staring out the window of his beloved castle and read the letter in hand with a growing feeling of apprehension.  As much as he wanted to see his youngest son, the letter from King Jared left him shaken.  There was no reason for it, other than the thing he wished not to speak of.  He didn’t want to think of it, and yet here it was.  Prophecy was falling true all around him even when there were only three who knew of its existence.     
  


 

He cursed the ill-fated timing of his youngest brother, but prophecy, what little was known of it, was unpredictable and Alan couldn’t help but think that the prophecy had come about because of the people present at the time.  Andrew’s words had been mumbled  in the middle of a feast that Alan had hoped would be the last of that kind; a welcoming feast to King Gerald who seemed to have more interest in Alan’s sons than in the peace he claimed to be seeking.  A moment in the corner with his brother, and he had been heralded by Gerald’s only daughter with one of the Kandili knights at her side.  Later visits with the Kandili King only increased Alan’s surety that the girl had kept the words to herself but it never made Alan feel any less vulnerable.  When she’d been wedded to the King of Donara, he’d felt relieved.  Donara had always been a friend to Pelagia, but in the current political climate it wasn’t as much a surety as he would have liked.  

 

  
Alan would never do anything to hinder his children’s happiness, but if he’d have been able to pick a fate for any of them, he would have wished Jensen’s happiness to lie elsewhere than with the Kandili King and Queen Consort.  His greatest fear in the last twenty years had been the way King Gerald had begun eating up the kingdoms that bordered his own.  Pelagia was well guarded but it had only been a matter of time before he came for Alan’s crown.  Then the Donaran king had informed Alan that Gerald had been researching in the Academy library for information on the Jade Crown, they’d long had a custom of informing one another of the interests of the Kandili king.  That had ended when he’d married the Princess and Alan had lost his hope that Megan would keep what she had heard secret.  

 

  
King Gerald had been consumed with consolidating his rule in Donara and his skirmishes against the Torugan and Pelagia had been safe for a while.  Jensen had become a knight of the old traditions in that time and Gerald still hadn’t been able to figure out his feelings about that.  He had no idea why Murray had wanted to train Jensen in the old ways, or why his son had been adamant to follow them as well.  It felt too much like the pieces of a Donaran clock clicking into place for Alan’s peace of mind.  When Gerald had died before he could make the next step in his conquest, Alan had waited to see how his son would sit on the throne.

 

  
King Jared of Kandilihar was nothing like what Alan would have expected, even having met him.  Gerald never went anywhere without the Crown Prince at his side.  Some said it was to show his son how to properly rule a country, while some said it was because he feared assassination and Jared was the most capable – and most ruthless – knight in his army.  At the time, Alan had believed that Jared kept to his father’s side to learn and to protect the man, but he didn’t believe he had the ruthlessness that others saw.  When Alan looked at the man Jared had become, he saw nothing but the cold, blank stare of a soldier.  He didn’t have the look of gluttony that Gerald had.  

 

  
In their initial correspondence, Jared had approached a friendship with careful words that left the taste of hope in Alan’s mouth.  Jared ruled Kandilihar and its three protectorates with a fair hand and he’d made no move to gain power in Toruga or Pelagia.  As far as Alan could tell, he hadn’t made anything more than a friendly move to the kingdoms outside the Six Lakes Realm either.  

 

  
Alan’s children were all entrenched in the runnings of this kingdom so that no matter who ruled, each had a place and knew how to behave as a ruler should, but it was his youngest who showed the most intuitive understanding of the other monarchies.  It was Jensen who realized that Jared was not the son his father would have wanted him to be.  Jensen knew how to deal with the Torugan delegates who were overbearing and taxed his patience and how to handle the quietly inquisitive ways of the Donaran.  When he’d asked Jensen to spend time with King Jared to see how he felt about the man, he’d never thought to lose his son to him.  

 

  
The letter in his hands made him smile because even in his written word, Jensen was able to express himself clearly and leave Alan with the peace that his son was well taken care of, and well loved.  His inquisitiveness was backfiring on him though and in his need to assure himself that Jensen was well, his son and son-in-law had decided to make the trip to Pelagia.  Jensen claimed that Jared wanted to travel with Jensen to let him meet the people of his country, but Alan knew that Jared wanted to show Alan himself that Jensen was well.

 

  
It would make Alan’s heart happy to see it, but he couldn’t help the growing fear that this trip would end badly.  He couldn’t help the growing fear that he should have told Jensen everything when he had the chance, because he wasn’t sure he would get another.

 

  
There was another letter he had to write.  He had no way of getting word to his son while he was travelling with Jared, but he had someone else he could trust.  While Gerald had taken possession of the Lastoran crown while it was in chaos, Alan had befriended the man who had fought for the rebellion that had toppled the previous crown.  Sebastian LaRoche was a man who threw himself into the political arena and had lit his homeland on fire.  While Gerald had seized control of the crown, LaRoche had empowered the people and overthrown the slave economy of Lastoran.  It had taken years for them to become economically stable but with the Kandili throne behind it, they’d flourished.  Pelagia had been part of it as well, putting as much of their trade into Lastoran as Alan felt he could to help them reestablish themselves.  He hated fattening Gerald’s purse but Alan knew Sebastian and they’d become friends.  

 

  
Now, he had need of his friend.  No one would think it odd for Alan to write to him so there was little chance that what he had to say would be taken by the enemy he felt on his back.  He had no name for this enemy but he knew, without questioning it, that his family legacy was about to come to call.  And if Alan had learned anything from his research about the Jade Crown, the legacy would leave blood in its wake.  Alan just hoped it wasn’t his family who had to pay it.  

 

 

 

 

  
The King of Kandilihar would never be found laughing so hard that he’d lost his ability to stand.  He would never be found laughing so hard, he’d snorted ale out of his nostrils.  Therefore, Jared hadn’t done either of those things, no matter what his husband said the next day.

 

  
Jensen smiled wickedly – and why did Danneel have to tell Jensen how much that smile affected Jared anyway – and mounted his horse.  It was early morning and Jensen had somehow managed to wake himself early enough that Jared was still asleep.  He’d woken Jared in a spectacular fashion in an activity that involved Jensen’s mouth and parts of Jared’s anatomy that had been rather pleased at the attention.  After breakfast Jensen had begun to entertain Murray and Kane with his tale of Jared’s less than spectacular actions once they’d gone back to their room at the inn.

 

  
Jared shook his head and looked behind him to see Kane and Murray quickly swallowing their smiles.  He should never have allowed Kane to get to know Jensen.  He wasn’t sure who was the worst influence but the two seemed to have grown closer lately and while Jared wasn’t surprised, he wasn’t too happy that they were all ganging up on him now.  Murray was a good man and Jared approved of the way he watched over Jensen.  

 

  
Jared was still trying to put together the image of his beloved husband with the idea of a trained ward and knight.  It wasn’t that Jared hadn’t worked hard and faced a dangerous path to get the title of knight, but he had won it in the heat of battle with his father’s sword on his shoulder.  Jensen had won his title with years of dedication to a set of skills that he had to have mastered before being allowed into the ring of combat with another knight.  He would then have had to best every knight to earn the right to join them.  Kane talked about the prowess with which Murray fought and had even commented during their last journey to Pelagia under his father’s rule, that he didn’t know who would come out alive if it came to it.  That Jensen had beaten Murray in a fight still made his head swim; his thoughtful, calm husband with a sword in hand.  

 

  
He’d seen a glimpse of it before, but nothing more and that image was enough to wish never to see it again.  Still, Jensen would be glorious in battle and Jared didn’t doubt that his husband would do whatever he had to in order to protect what was his.

 

  
“How long until the Kandilihar beach?” Jensen asked as Jared ‘s steed moved up alongside his.  A company of men moved out behind them and Murray took off before them with Able to scout the way before them and make certain there was no trouble to be concerned with.  Kane was at the back of the column and Jared shook his head at Jensen’s teasing voice.

 

  
“We don’t have beaches in Kandilihar.  The shore is rocky and hard and nothing to be caught playing about on.”

 

  
Jensen’s lips turned up again.  “I had noticed that the shore lacked a certain-”

 

  
“Don’t say it.”  

 

  
Jensen laughed then and Jared couldn’t help but smile in response.  Jensen could tease him all he wanted about the small strip of land that kept the Kandili border from being completely land locked.  His father hadn’t wanted to worry about a navy so he’d never wanted his own lands to include much access to the Pela Sea.  If there was a strip big enough for a dock and the boats they needed for merchants to come across, then Gerald had been happy.  Jared wasn’t the man to try to expand his borders so he was happy enough with letting Jensen tease him.  Especially since Pelagia had the most stunning beaches in all the Six Lakes Realm.  

 

  
“The dock is only a two day’s ride,” Jared said.  “You would know that if you’d paid attention to the trip details instead of stealing away with my wife.”

 

  
Jensen’s blush was more than Jared had hoped for.  The more time they spent together the less Jensen blushed but his relationship with Danneel was still enough to make his face heat up.  It was enough to heat Jared up; thinking about Jensen putting his hands on his wife’s body, watching them as they worked one another up and turned to Jared for release.  Soon, he whispered each time, soon they would be able to be together.  Danneel was pregnant with his heir and once the child was born, Danneel would be able to give herself to her Pelagian husband without reservation.  

 

  
Jared was certain he had to want it more than the other two because no one could want it worse than he did, but the looks that passed between them sometimes reminded him that they all wanted the same thing.  

 

  
“I can’t help it if the Kandili Queen Consort didn’t want to be parted from me.”

 

  
Jared laughed as they traveled on, smiling at his husband.  “How I ever thought I would be able to handle you and Danneel together I will never know.  The two of you will be the death of me.”

 

  
He said it in jest but he wanted the words back as soon as he spoke them.  Jensen’s eyes widened slightly and the smile that had been on his lips died.  Since the night of Jensen’s dreams he’d become too sensitive about those sort of things, too easily shaken by the image of dreams that continued to haunt his sleep.  

 

  
Jared wanted to say something to make Jensen smile again but he knew there was nothing he could do until Jensen was ready to be rid of the mood.  Whatever else was going on in Jensen’s head, death and blood were a large part of the vision and his Pelagian husband was too consumed with fear for his wife and husband to be easily placated.

 

  
Instead, Jared brought his steed closer and reached a hand out to Jensen.  Jensen looked up in surprise, but took the hand.  It might not be much, but he could at least remind Jensen he was there, and still alive.

 

 

 

 

  
Jensen didn’t think he’d ever taken a better trip.  He wasn’t so certain that Jared’s idea to tour the countryside was a good one.  No matter how Jared and Danneel talked about it being good for the people to see him, Jensen couldn’t easily dismiss the oppressive feeling of his dreams.  He missed Danneel something fierce and he wasn’t sure how Jared could stand to be away from the woman who had been his rock for so many years, but being out among the people had actually kept his mind from the dreams and when he woke each night, sweating and heart racing, Jared was there to kiss away the fears that tried to pull him under.

 

  
There was no better way to get to know the people than to be among them and though Jensen was Pelagian by birth and upbringing, he was well received by the people.  Better received than the council would have led him to believe while they debating how the inclusion of a foreigner into the Triune would be acknowledged by the commoners.  

 

  
Some asked after his family, but most asked about the Pela sea and the great boats and navy of Pelagia.  There was no navy to rival his father’s and their boatcraft was beyond compare.  It gave Jensen the openings he wanted and he was able to ask after their own traditions, things that Danneel and Jared simply took as commonplace and forgot to explain to him.  

 

  
Being partially nomadic gave them a great oral tradition that wasn’t to be found in the great libraries of the world; even in the Academy of Donara.  Jensen thought more than once of taking a trip with a Donaran scholar to have them collect the local stories and traditions but it was just an afterthought as he spoke with the people who looked to him for protection.

 

  
It was humbling, after being the last in the line of a thrown to suddenly being a part of the ruling Triune and being responsible for the Kandili people’s care and wellbeing.  Jared seemed to realize how Jensen felt because he was always there with a kind whisper in his ear about the respect and goodwill he was showing and how the people were already accepting him for his charm and generous nature.  

 

  
It didn’t stop the feeling of darkness but as he stumbled up the steps of the inn they were at, he couldn’t help but smile as his husband followed behind him.  Kane and Murray were behind them but Jensen knew they’d retire for the night as soon as the King and Prince Consort were in their room.  Carlson and Able would be outside the door in the morning and Jensen felt as safe with them as he did Murray.  Jared’s knights were as loyal to him as any Jensen had ever met.  He didn’t know if it was because of the battles they’d fought together under Jared’s father or if it was just that Jared endeared people to him but Jensen could see it in the way they watched their King.

 

  
“Do you miss Pelagia already?”  Jared asked behind him as they stopped in front of the door.

 

  
Jensen opened the door and turned to look up at his husband as he pushed it open slowly.  “I missed Pelagia the moment we left.  There is nothing in Kandilihar that matched the roar of the waves at full tide or the taste of salt air on your tongue.”  He smiled as he pulled Jared into the room with him, closing the door by pushing his husband back against it.  He pushed the tunic up over his head and Jared took the hint and pulled it all the way off.  Jensen ran his hands across the wide expanse of the king’s shoulders and down the tanned, toned muscles until he was resting his fingers just above the fastening of his trousers.  “But there is nothing in Pelagia like the hills that roll like waves of green, or the thunder of hooves as the great cattle drives move across the earth.”  

 

  
Jensen leaned in, letting his hands pull apart the fastenings as he brought his lips close enough to feel his husband’s breath.  “There is nothing like the Kandili king, strong and fierce in his love for his people, for his wife-”

 

  
“For his husband,” Jared interrupted as he wrapped an arm around Jensen and pulled their lips together.

 

  
Jensen bit softly on Jared’s bottom lip, causing his husband to gasp slightly.  He took advantage of the opening and slid his tongue into Jared’s mouth, needing to reclaim the taste of his husband.  Jared opened deeper for him and returned the favor, tongues searching and finding and dancing as Jensen slid his hand down until his fingers we wrapped around Jared’s hard cock.  Jared moaned at the touch and his fingers dug under Jensen’s shirt until they found bare skin.  Jared curled his fingers into the skin of Jensen’s back and he arched into the scratch of nails as he stroked up and down his husband’s length.             

 

  
“Jensen,” Jared begged against his lips and Jensen knew he could never hear the way Jared said his name and not be hungry for more.  He couldn’t wait to hear it from their wife either.  

 

  
“Whatever you want my King,” Jensen whispered in answer. 

 

  
He was pushed back slowly, Jared’s hands still on his back as he led Jensen back to the bed.  It was large for an inn, the best they had, but it was nothing like their bed back in the castle.  Jensen had a moment to miss it as he was pushed back on not-soft-enough blankets but then Jared was on top of him, spreading Jensen’s knees with his own as he settled between them and Jensen had only thoughts of his husband and his need.

 

  
Jensen reached up and wrapped his fingers in the soft locks at the nape of Jared’s neck and pulled him in close.  

 

  
“You should watch what you say, Jensen,” Jared said softly.  “Giving me whatever I want?  It could be trouble.”

 

  
Jensen returned Jared’s wicked grin.  “I would hope so.”

 

  
Jared’s body was pressing him down into the mattress then, his lips capturing Jensen’s in a passionate kiss.  Jensen felt the hard length of Jared against his own and moaned as he thrust up lightly to get his husband’s attention where he wanted it.  Jared thrust down in answer but then he was moving away from Jensen.  Jensen reached for him, chasing after the heat that was his husband but Jared pushed him back down onto the bed and he began pulling Jensen’s shirt off.  Jensen reached for the hem and pulled it over his head.  As he threw it on the floor, Jared began mouthing his way down Jensen’s chest until his mouth was resting against the hard press of Jensen’s cock.  

 

  
“Jared, please,” he reached down and twined his fingers in Jared’s head but he didn’t pull him where he wanted him.  He just needed to touch his husband and Jared’s eyes lit up as he looked up at Jensen.

 

  
“I thought it was whatever I wanted?”

 

  
“And you want to make your husband die of need?”

 

  
Jared smiled.  “Maybe I just want to hear you beg?”

 

  
“Anything,” Jensen whispered as Jared pulled at the fastenings of his pants and pushed them down slightly.  The head of Jensen’s cock peeked over the end of his pants and Jensen closed his eyes, letting his head fall back.  “Jared, please, I need.”

 

 

 

Jared took mercy on him and he felt the warmth of Jared’s tongue on him, licking at the precome there.   Strong hands pushed his pants the rest of the way down and then he was naked on the bed with Jared dipping his head down to swallow Jensen’s cock whole.  Jared gripped his hip with one hand and trailed the other up over Jensen’s nipples, rolling one slowly before continuing up to push his fingers in past Jensen’s lips.

 

  
Jensen licked and sucked on Jared’s fingers, mimicking the motions Jared was currently making.  He wanted to feel Jared inside of him, pushing and stretching, filling him in ways he’d never known possible before he’d been welcomed into the wedding bed.  Now, he couldn’t live without that sensation.  When Jared pulled his fingers away, Jensen nipped lightly at the tips, making Jared look up at him.  Jensen felt the warning of teeth against his cock but he knew the threat was empty and he laughed at his husband’s playful mood.  

 

  
His laughter died when Jared pressed the flat of his finger against his hole, teasing as he worked his mouth up and down Jensen’s cock.  “Jared,” it seemed to be all he could say now that they were in bed and Jared didn’t seem to mind that at all.  He pulled off of Jensen’s cock and smiled at him as he watched Jensen’s body as he pressed the finger in.

 

  
“Are you going to open up for me, Love?”  Jared asked as he thrust in slowly.

 

  
“More,” Jensen demanded, ignoring Jared’s knowing smile.  

 

  
A second finger began opening him up and then Jared leaned in and began licking across Jensen’s hole and then in with his fingers.  Jensen made a wordless sound and he lost track of how long Jared opened him up, caught in the sensation of his fingers and tongue and the way his other hand had started to press bruisingly against his thigh.  

 

  
He felt the loss of Jared’s fingers and whined as he opened his eyes.  His whine stopped as he found his husband standing over him, stripping out of his pants.  When he stood up, Jensen couldn’t help but marvel at him.  Of all the things Jensen had come to love about Jared, his body was the least important but Jared was still the most stunningly attractive man he’d ever met and his naked body would never make Jensen feel anything other than wanton and needy.

 

  
Jared looked down at him mirroring the same worship in his eyes and then Jared was laying over him again, the tip of his cock pressing gently against Jensen, demanding entrance.  Jensen pulled Jared down for a kiss as Jared breeched his body.  He moaned into Jared’s mouth but his lover swallowed the noise whole.  Jensen felt his body stretching to accommodate Jared and he wrapped his ankles around Jared’s knees, trying to speed his movements up.  Jared laughed into his mouth and let Jensen dictate the speed until he was fully buried.  

 

  
“Love you so much,” Jared dropped his head and whispered the words into Jensen’s ear.  “Do anything to make you happy Jensen.  Tell me you are,” Jared demanded.

 

  
Jensen wrapped his arms around Jared and held him close.  “Always with you,” Jensen answered.  

 

  
It was what Jared needed to hear and he rose up onto his forearms, his body shifting subtly over Jensen’s as he began to slowly thrust into him.  Jensen leaned up for Jared’s lips and he was lost once more in the sensation of Jared over him and in him and all around him.

 

  
When Jared reached between them and began stroking Jensen it was quickly over.  He was too worked up from the feel of Jared’s stomach moving against his weeping cock and the way Jared pressed against that spot inside his body that exploded with pleasure.  Jared barely had his fingers on Jensen’s length before his body seized up and he was coming over Jared’s fingers.  

 

  
Jared moaned with the feeling of Jensen’s body closing tighter around him and he began thrusting harder, faster, and more uncontrolled.  Jensen loved seeing his husband like that; open and wild and so much the man he loved.  

 

  
He felt Jared press in hard, his hips grinding against Jensen as he stilled, coming hard inside him as he bit down on Jensen’s bottom lip.  Jensen moaned as Jared breathed out Jensen’s name before he finally dropped his forehead to Jensen’s to take long breaths to steady himself.

 

  
Jensen smiled as he watched Jared.  The king had his eyes closed and his cheeks were flushed from the pleasure they’d shared.  Jensen reached up, running his fingers over Jared’s face, bringing the full gaze of those hazel eyes.  

 

  
Jared was sated and strong and so much more than Jensen had ever thought he would have in life.  Once upon a time he thought his marriage would be one of politics and convenience with someone he would one day grow to love.  He’d never thought to fall so completely in love with someone, let alone two someones.  He took a deep breath and smiled at his husband.  “I love you,” he said quietly into the space between them.  

  
Jared pulled slowly from his body and wrapped him up in his arms and kissed him softly.  He fell asleep in those strong arms, warm and safe and knowing that he was the most loved man in not just the Six Lakes Realm, but in any realm.

  
Jensen sat up from his dream, eyes blurry and unable to focus in the darkness of the room.  He could still smell the smoke from his dreams.  Ash lay like a second skin against his tongue and he closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, trying to remove the image of flames from his mind.  It had been Pelagia this time.  A figure stood behind Jared and all the world beyond that burned; the castle of Kandilihar, the green plains, the people he’d come to love.  Before Jared was the Pelagian coast and his father’s navy burned too while invaders crept up the beach to steal into the castle at night, knives gleaming red.

  
When Jensen opened his eyes he realized the smoke was still there, and he was able to hear the calls from outside. 

  
“Jared!” He scrambled from their bed and began pulling his clothes on, throwing Jared’s in a pile beside him.  

  
Jared sat up immediately, the tone of Jensen’s voice alerting him to whatever danger was at hand.  His eyes only took a moment to take in the smoke and the noise of the people clamoring outside.  

  
“What’s happening?”

  
Jensen opened the window of their room and saw the flames that were dancing over the stables and the lower portion of the eastern wing of the inn.  They wing of the inn they were staying in wasn’t in danger of catching yet but there was no hope of keeping the whole thing from burning if they didn’t act quickly.

  
Someone banged hard on the outside of their door and as Jensen opened it, Jared was already in his pants, slipping his shirt over his head.

  
“Your Majesty, we need to get you out of here,” Able said as Carlson slipped into the room and handed Jared his sword belt and sword.  When Jared took it, Carlson was handing Jensen his as well.

  
“You think this is trouble?” Jensen asked as he slipped the belt on and sat down to get his boots on.  

  
“There’s always trouble,” Carlson said as he looked out the window, trusting Able to guard the door.  “It could be nothing more than a careless stable boy but it could be something more.”

  
Jared stood at the ready then and Jensen nodded at his husband before they left their rooms.  There was nothing of importance in the inn that they couldn’t replace but the innkeeper and his family would not be so lucky if the whole building burnt to the ground.

  
“See to the water!” Jensen shouted out as he rushed towards the flames.  

  
“Jensen!”  Murray shouted as he rushed to his side with Kane but Jensen didn’t have time to put his knight at ease. 

  
“We need to see that everyone is safe.  Jared will make sure the rest of the inn is alright,” he said as they ran towards the closest door that hadn’t been overtaken by flames yet.  “See if you can find anyone that needs help getting out.”

  
Kane was grumbling behind him but Jensen ignored the knight’s comments, knowing it was against the knight’s oaths to allow him to run off on his own, but knowing the need.  He did as Jensen asked and he didn’t have to look to see if Murray was.  They’d known each other for too long not to know when to take an order and when to ignore it.  

  
Jensen pushed the first door open and only took a moment to see that it was empty before he moved on to the next one.  He moved from door to door then, waking some and finding more empty doors.  The heat got worse as he worked, his eyes stung with it.  Smoke began to billow around him as he got closer to the fire and it made his eyes water.  His lungs stung with each breath and the back of his throat felt charred.  They were almost through when he found a sleeping man that he was unable to rouse.  Passed out drunk probably, though Jensen could only smell ash he had no doubt alcohol would have reeked from the man otherwise, but Jensen couldn’t leave him there with the flames moving closer.  

  
A crash outside in the hallway made him look out and he realized the fire was catching up quicker than he’d like.  He didn’t think he could carry the man out of the room on his own.  “Murray!  Kane!”  

  
There was no answer and Jensen felt a tendril of fear for the knights.  He didn’t have time to worry about them yet though.  Instead, he went into the room and looked around, hoping to find water to rouse the drunk with.  He heard something knock hard against the wooden shutters in the room and he opened them quickly, finding Kane under the window.  

  
“We need to get you out,” Kane demanded.  There was no telling him no, and yet Jensen couldn’t leave the other man behind. 

“Good timing.  I have someone coming out to you.  I’ll be right behind him.”  It took too long to get it done, but in the end Murray had shown up and helped Kane catch the sleeping man and then Jensen was able to crawl out the window behind him.

“Did we get everyone?” Jensen asked.

  
Kane nodded.  “We cleared every room in this wing.  Let’s hope they’re able to get the fire stopped before it takes the rest of the inn.”

Jensen let out a deep breath before he finally looked around.  “We need to find Jared and see if he needs help.”

  
Kane was already ahead of him and Jensen knew how close the two men were, no matter that one was king and one was a knight.  

  
What they found ahead of them was utter chaos with no one in charge of the water and people sitting around watching the building burn.  They went into a flurry of motion, Kane looking for Jared while Murray and Jensen got the people to work together to bring water from the well to try to stop the burning.  

  
The rest of the village was awake by then and hands were finally enough to see that the inn wouldn’t burn completely.  Jensen’s arms burned with the ache of throwing water on the flames before it was done, but as the fire seemed to be slowing, he was pulled away from the mess by Kane.  There was blood and ash on his face and Jensen knew his own had the same, hands ripped open by wooden splinters and harsh ropes but he’d been unwilling to stop for so small an injury no matter how great it hurt.

  
It was Kane’s eyes that made his knees go weak but he stood tall.  “What happened?”

  
“Able is unconscious.  The surgeon is with him now to see if they can save him.  I can’t find Carlson but Able was found close to the fire.  Carlson might have been dragged in and-” 

  
He didn’t finish the thought.  There would be no way to know until the fire burned out and even then they might not know for sure.  “And Jared?”

Kane pulled Jensen and Murray to the side and pulled something out of a stash of rubble.  He’d obviously hidden it there until he could bring Jensen aside and as Kane handed it to him, Jensen’s heart sank.  

  
Murray had one arm on his elbow, but Jensen took a deep breath.  He pulled his own sword out of its sheath and handed it to Murray before holding Jared’s sword before him.  There was blood on its edges and he cleaned it quickly before he slid it into his own sheath. 

“Are there any signed of who took him?”

  
Kane shook his head.  “We have a lot of ground to cover though before I can be certain.”

  
Jensen could see the way Kane’s jaw clenched and he knew the knight wasn’t thinking about his king, but about the boy he’d sworn to protect, the man who’d married his sister, and the woman waiting at home, belly beginning to swell with the child of the man she loved beyond anything.  

Jensen was the Prince Consort though and no matter how he wanted to blindly follow after his husband, he had to be smart about it.  

  
“Kane, see if you can find a trail.  Murray, talk to the villagers.  They might not have thought anything of what they saw, but if we start asking discrete questions you might find something out.  Discretion is the key here gentleman.  We don’t know what happened and we don’t need a panic here or word of Jared’s –“ he paused because the word was stuck in his throat.  “We don’t want word of the King’s abduction to spread to the borders.   Report back at first light.  I’ll be with Able.  If the surgeon can get him to wake again he might be able to tell me something.”

  
“And if he can’t?” Murray asked. 

Jensen looked at Kane and waited until the other man was focused on him and not the turmoil in his head.  “If he can’t, then at first light we ride out with the best lead we have.”

  


“Are you sure this is the best choice?”

Chad Murray wasn’t one to question the Prince Consort’s orders but considering the events of the last few hours, he felt the need to hear the surety in Jensen’s voice.  Chad had spent the greatest part of his life making guarding Jensen and making sure he was strong enough for whatever was to come.  Looking at Jensen now, he was damn proud of the man he was and if had been any other situation he would never ask.  

  
It was the king though, and Chad knew that Jensen wanted to crumple up under the weight of his husband’s disappearance.  He wouldn’t.  He was stronger than that, and Chad knew him better than anyone alive.  

  
Kane was looking at him with the same concern and Chad felt his back stiffen up at the way Kane might take the question.  The movement drew Kane’s eye to his though and Chad felt only the concern for the man before them, not judgment.

  
“One messenger to Pelagia to let them know that I will be late and another to Danneel, to inform her that there may be more mercenaries in our lands.  I won’t send word to worry her until I can help it.  With any luck we’ll have Jared back before night fall and this will all be unnecessary.  The men will go ahead with Collins to Pelagia as if nothing happened.  Those you picked out will follow us with the trail Kane and Collins found.”

  
Jensen turned to Kane then.  “You’re sure about Collins?”

  
Kane nodded.  “He’d die before betraying the king.  And he’d have died before letting anyone hurt Able.  The scouts are more like brothers than soldiers and he took Able under his wing before he was old enough to be a squire.”

  
Jensen looked back at him and Chad nodded his agreement.  He didn’t know the men as well as Christian did, but he’d spent six months getting to know the knights of Kandilihar.  Beyond the reputation they’d had under King Gerald’s rule, Chad had gotten to know them as brothers in arms and to test their willingness to follow Jensen.  He’d found all of them to be loyal and trustworthy.  Men that he would be willing to fight alongside with. And then there was Kane himself.

  
Christian Kane was a warrior unlike Chad had ever met.  Christian was quiet about himself.  He was loud and rowdy with the men, quiet and quick witted when faced with his sister or the Triune, but he never gave away much of himself.  Chad had seen a little of it when they’d had to go on an all too similar journey, with Jared at their side and Jensen the target of abduction.  Left on their own to create a false trail, Chad had learned more about Christian then than he’d ever hoped to.  It only made him want to know more.  

Kane trusted every one of his knights with his life and with that of his sister.  He trusted them with his King and the Prince Consort.  He believed in the arms he bore and the brothers who picked them up with him.  

  
If ever a group of men was less likely to betray their monarch it was these men.  And yet there had been two successful attempts to abduct a member of the Triune in a little over six months.  It made Chad’s skin crawl to think of it and he knew Christian was thinking the same.

  
“We should leave, if we’re going to, my Lord,” Chad said softly, hoping to end the debate that he knew had to be going on in Jensen’s head. 

  
Jensen took a deep breath as he turned to look at the lands around them.  There was no clear path to Jared, but as Kane had started his search, he’d included Collins and they’d found some tracks leading off to the east.  It was a trail that could lead them towards the border of Kandilihar and Ruvien or it could lead back around to Pelagia.  They didn’t know who was behind it, but neither Ruvien nor Pelagia were considered in those implications.  The Prince of Ruvien wasn’t strong enough to stand against the Kandili Triune – in public disavowal or by private means – and King Alan would never hurt his son in such a way.  They would have to see who the abductors answered to, and this time Chad had every intention of making sure at least one of them talked.  Someone was out to destroy the Kandili Triune and he was sworn to protect it.  

  
“It is,” Jensen finally answered.  “We move out now.  Light and fast, we’re riding to catch them before they can do any further harm to my husband.”

He pushed his horse forward then and Chad took his place to Jensen’s right as Kane took a place at his left.  They had only a dozen men with them but Jensen was right.  Their hope was in catching the perpetrators fast and the more men they had with them the slower they would go.

  
Chad gave a nod to Jensen’s back, approval in his eyes as he watched the boy he’d known step up to be the man he’d always known he could be.  When his eyes caught Kane’s, he knew the other man understood.  Jensen meant to find Jared or see them die in the attempt and Chad would follow his prince to the death.  

  


  
Jared shook his head, trying to clear it of the fog.  He didn’t know where he was.  It was dark and cold and as he tried to stand up he remembered the fire.  He couldn’t stand, couldn’t even try since his hands were tied behind his back, connected to his ankles.  

  
Jared took a deep breath and closed his eyes, focusing on what he knew.  There had been a fire at the inn.  He and Jensen had run out to try to help and Jensen had run head first into the building, leaving Jared gaping but knowing he had to get water on the fire to keep Jensen safe.  Jared had started getting people organized with Able and Carlson following him.  He turned the corner to try to find more people but ended up with a sword at his throat.  Able had shouted out a warning but Jared was pricked by something in the neck and as he’d fallen he’d seen mercenaries advancing on the two knights.  

  
Jared dropped his chin to his chest, fighting against the fear that his men were dead and that someone might have gone after his husband again.  He didn’t know the facts and Jensen was more than able to take care of himself.  He was a knight of the old ways, even if Jared had never seen the full potential of his husband’s skill.  Kane and Murray had been running after Jensen into the fire, Jared remembered it, remembered thinking Murray would keep the Prince Consort safe no matter what the cost to himself.  

  
He let out another deep breath then, calming himself with that thought.  Jensen was safe and Danneel was behind the walls of their castle and he was the only one that was in danger.  He could face that.  

  
He tried to pull against the ropes that bound him but they were digging into his skin, fingers already beginning to feel the sting of abuse.

  
“If you keep doing that, you’re going to hurt yourself.”

  
He looked up to see a strange man standing before him.  His skin was darkened from exposure to the sun and his body was lithe and well-muscled under his tan garments.  The man’s face was heavily lined as though he’d had a hard life, but the eyes that stared back at him were bright blue and seemed to laugh as he watched Jared struggle against his bonds.

  
“I wouldn’t mind you being hurt, but this isn’t my party and my mistress seems to want to keep you alive.”

  
“Who are you?” Jared asked.  There were so many things to ask instead, was his husband unhurt?  His knights?  Who was this mistress and where were they going?  Why had they taken him?  The problem was that Jared knew enough of the Torugan to know that those wouldn’t be answered.  The only thing he could do would be to try to gain the man’s respect and then some answers might be forthcoming.  Instead, he kept a calm voice.  This man had the upper hand in every way but Jared refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing him lose control of his emotions.  Jared wouldn’t let his fear show, even as he swallowed down the thought of never seeing his wife or husband again; of never seeing his unborn child.

  
“Lehne.”

  
The man was obviously Torugan but the clipped way he spoke made it more obvious.  The Torugan were a warrior culture, not unlike the Kandilihar.  While the Kandili culture had grown up around the tribal clashes of their nomadic ancestors and their aggression stemmed from the hunt that had insured their people’s survival, the Torugan had developed their own strange society based on the harsh desert lands that they called home.  Jared had been trained to survive in the Torugan deserts but he’d never had to test that.  

  
The Torugan were notoriously loyal to their people and they didn’t leave their land often except for the utmost need.  Jared had met with them over his years, as a soldier and as a diplomat, and he wasn’t sure in which arena they were fiercest.  King Gerald had wanted to test the Torugan soldiers and had sent his men in skirmishes across their border, but it had never escalated to full war because Jared’s father knew he would fight a bitter battle there.  Gerald had planned to build his army up strong enough to overcome any thought of victory for the Torugan but he’d died before he had the chance.  As much as Jared had loved his father, he’d been glad enough that his father’s death had curtailed the death toll at the Torugan border.  Jared had pulled his people off the border except for the outposts and those had been manned to make sure that the Torugans didn’t think a change of ruler meant weakness for the Kandili nation.

Now, Jared tried to remember what he knew of the Torugan that he could use to his advantage.  “You’re a long way from your desert,” Jared said softly.

  
Lehne looked at him and nodded but didn’t say anything.

  
“I need water,” Jared said next, licking his lips at the thought of it.  The problem with most diplomats that dealt with the Torugan was that they asked for everything politely.  What Jared had learned – the hard way – was that it was better to make everything a statement.  The Torugan appreciated a person who knew what they wanted and were willing to fight for it.  They weren’t cruel or mean by nature simply because their environment was but they weren’t willing to waste their precious resources on someone who didn’t want them enough to fight for it.  

  
A request for water would have been laughed at and he’d possibly have even been injured for it, but telling them what he needed was different, and Lehne gave him a once over before pulling a canteen off his hip and taking a long sip himself.  He then held the water to Jared’s lips and allowed him to drink freely.

  
  
“Thank you for your offering,” Jared said with a deep sigh as he watched the other man put the canteen away.           

 

Lehne gave him a small smile.  “You know something of our ways,” the man said with a rough voice.  

  
Jared nodded.  “You know who I am and the agreements I’ve made with your people.  I wouldn’t have made it far if I didn’t  
know a little of who you are.”  The man nodded and Jared hoped he’d give away something but he simply turned and left the room.  From what Jared could see, he was housed in a room in a small home but where he was and how long he’d been out he still didn’t know.  

  
Lehne might be a mercenary, but Jared doubted it.  The Torugans weren’t known for shifting loyalties and whatever was happening to him might explain why Jared had been having so many problems getting the Torugan diplomats to give some formal declaration of an alliance between them.  The Torugans would never lie about their intention and their ability to step aside the issue and work towards another had allowed them to step clear of even a declaration of friendship.  Jared had always known that would come back to haunt him.  

  
He didn’t know anything for certain though and Jared took a deep breath, trying to get a better baring on his surroundings.  The more he knew, the more he could work with.  If Lehne wasn’t a mercenary, he might still be able to move the Torugan to his side.  It was the best hope he had of getting free and Jared wasn’t going to give up.  Danneel and Jensen were still out there, waiting for him to come home.  They were just beginning to settle into their Triune and he wasn’t about to leave them when there was still so much he needed to know about them.

They were travelling by carriage the next day and Jared woke with the movements, barely managing to catch himself before he bashed his head into the side.  He sat up, his stomach queasy from whatever drug they’d given him.  Wherever they’d been, it must have been with friends because they’d carried Jared in and out of the building and no one had saved him yet.

  
He sat up, grateful to see that his hands were no longer tied to his feet.  He had his hands tied in front of him and he was alone in the carriage with Lehne.  Jared felt weak, from the lack of food or the drugs he didn’t know, but when he looked up at Lehne, the other man nodded to him in acknowledgment.  

  
“Water?”  Jared asked as he licked at parched lips.  Lehne gave him the canteen from his belt again and Jared realized there was something to that.  There was another canteen sitting at his side and yet he gave Jared his.  Whoever they travelled with, Lehne didn’t trust them.  

Jared drank heavily and Lehne watched him.  When he returned it, Jared thanked him again for it.  There was nothing else to look at in the carriage; the windows were closed tight and they were alone.  It was a small carriage but Jared could hear men around them and other vehicles moving along the line with him and he knew he was travelling with a larger group.  He needed to learn more but he didn’t know how to find out what he needed to know.  Lehne was the only person he’d seen and he doubted he’d be shown another face until it was too late to use the information.

  
“How long has it been?” Jared asked finally.  “Since I was captured?”

  
Lehne eyed him for a moment before answering.  “Three days.  You slept a very long time after they took you.  They feared that the dart had been too powerful and that you wouldn’t wake, but you proved stronger than their poison.”

  
Jared acknowledged the words with a nod because to the Torugans it would be a compliment that he had survived.  “It helps to be a horseman,” Jared said with a small smile.  “We have to be a hardy people to keep up with our horses.”

  
Lehne leaned forward slightly.  “I have never seen so many horses in my whole life as I have seen this one trip into your lands.”

  
The Torugans had a hardy breed of mule stock that worked well in the desert but they were small and ill-fitted for riding.  Those Torugans who had come to Jared’s castle had often been found near the stables or watching the horsemen run drills.  Jared had realized the awe with which the Torugans held their horses.  

“Too bad you didn’t come to the castle.  You could have seen the great stallions of the cavalry.  They are magnificent to behold.  Stories tell of the thunder of their hooves and the flash of their teeth in the heat of battle, of the grace and elegance of a Kandili stallion at a full run, but it never does them justice.  You should have come in peace to see it.”

  
Lehne nodded.  “I would have liked to have seen them but it is not my place to walk among The Fathers.  I simply follow as my Shama leads.”

  
“I understand,” Jared sighed softly as he spoke.  “I did not always believe in the battles my father chose but it was my hand that fought still.”

“You were an honorable opponent, even if the old King was not to be trusted.  We did not meet in battle, but my people spoke well of you.  It would have been a battle, would it not?”

  
Jared didn’t let himself smile at that comment.  No matter that the soldiers would have preferred a peaceful end to things, Jared could admit that a full battle against the Torugans would have been a beauty of strategy and planning.  It would have been well played on both ends and Jared had been raised to understand the art of war.  

  
“You may still see that battle.  Your people have abducted the King of Kandilihar.  Do you think the remaining Triune will remain calm?”

  
Lehne shrugged.  “I think you won’t need to be so worried about them soon.  I think when we arrive at our destination, you will have other things to worry about.”

  
“And where are we headed?”

Lehne shook his head and there was disgust in his words.  “To your friends.”

 

 

“He isn’t doing well.”   
  


Jensen stopped where he was.  He recognized Kane’s voice immediately but there was something intimate about the soft voice, spoken across a small fire in the dark of the night.  Neither Kane nor Murray were ever put on the watch at night, but neither man was asleep when Jensen woke in the morning or when he went to bed at night.  From the entry of his tent he could see the two men, alone, guarding his position in the center of their small camp.

  
“Jensen is stronger than you think,” Murray defended him immediately but Jensen could see the tension in his knight’s shoulders and knew the other man thought the same.

 

“I don’t doubt his strength, Chad.”

  
“Then what?”

 

“His dreams.”

  
“You think he’s making all this up?” Murray asked.  There was no anger in his voice but an almost desperate plea for Kane to answer negatively.  Jensen didn’t know how to feel about the conversation himself.  He knew he should signal that he was coming out of his tent but he couldn’t.  

 

“No, I’m afraid he isn’t.  I’m afraid that it means something and whatever end he is leading us to, it will be bloody and cold when we arrive.”

 

Murray poked at the fire for a moment before he looked back at Kane.  “Christian, would you run from what is happening?  Could you run from the battle?”

  
“Yes,” the Kandili knight said and Jensen had to bite back his gasp.  “If there was something worth running for, but not if the Triune is caught up in it.  If it weren’t for them,” he sighed.  “I would walk away and find a quiet place of my own.  Maybe something close to the sea.”

 

  
Murray laughed softly.  “I can’t see you as anything other than a knight.  What would you do without your armor and your king’s honor?”

 

Kane looked down at his hands.  “Something honest and good.  Something that wasn’t stained red at the end of the day.  I could raise horses.  I learned the craft from my father.  I will never have sons, but I could be happy to leave a legacy of horses to my sister’s children.  I could travel the world maybe.  Find someone to sail me around the world, beyond the  
borders of the Six Lakes.”

 

Murray shook his head.  “That would be a worthy trip.  I have never sailed beyond the borders but I know how to handle a ship.  It might be worth trying, just to see if your land legs could hold up.  The riding of horses is nothing compared to walking the deck in a winter storm.”

 

Kane smiled.  “You would enjoy that too much,” he said softly.  “I would be at your mercy.”

 

“And I would take advantage of it,” Murray said.  

 

Kane’s eyes met Murray’s across the fire and Jensen realized then what the two men had been dancing around tonight, what they’d been dancing around for much longer if he looked back at their interactions since Jensen had come to live in Kandilihar.  

 

Kane’s eyes dropped but Murray’s didn’t.  “You want more from the honor of your life than to be tied to an old knight who is too wrapped up in his King and Queen,” Kane said.

 

Murray’s laughter was sad.  “And you should want more than a brash knight who cannot sleep without knowing two men guard his Prince and cannot be easy without him in sight.”

 

“Maybe I should,” Kane said softly.  It was almost too soft to hear, but it made it over the fire and Jensen closed his eyes at the next words.  “But I don’t.”

 

He was tied to Murray in ways that few people now understood, but if anyone could it was Jared and Kane.  Their relationship was close and bound even stronger by their mutual love of Danneel.  

  
Jensen didn’t know what to do about what he’d just heard.  His heart was breaking for the two men; they would never allow themselves to be more than what they were because of the bond they felt with the men they were sworn to.  He wanted to yell at them, to make them understand that love was worth the risks and that nothing they felt for one another would ever make Jared or Danneel or Jensen think less of their abilities to protect the Triune.  He wasn’t even supposed to overhear this though and there was nothing he could do that wouldn’t hurt the two men.

 

“The Prince Consort will be tired tomorrow,” Murray said softly, steering the conversation to something safer.  “I don’t know how much longer we will be able to keep the other men from hearing his nightmares.”

  
Kane nodded.  Jensen didn’t realize they’d been trying to cover for Jensen’s terrors but as soon as he thought it, he knew he should have.  Murray wouldn’t want the men to worry about Jensen’s health and Kane would have understood the morale of his men.  

 

“I don’t know about the royal family in Pelagia, but in Kandilihar no one would fault the Prince Consort for nightmares about his King being abducted.”

  
Murray looked at him oddly for a moment.  “Then why hide it?”

  
“Because it isn’t about Jared.  Whatever he’s seeing, the Prince Consort sees true Chad.  There are many things I believe in and most of them are so old they’re nothing but folktales and fantasies.  Prince Jensen sees beyond what is in front of him and these dreams?  I believe in what he sees and knowing that he screams like his throat is being ripped apart and he wakes haunted?  That terrifies me.  I’ll follow for love of the Triune, but not all hearts are as stalwart as yours Chad.”

  
Jensen took a deep breath and slowly closed the entrance to his tent.  As much as he had wanted to get out and clear his head, he couldn’t now.  What Kane said about his dreams was too true.  Jensen woke terrified because they felt real.  He felt the press of reality behind his eyes and the weight of it on his heart was taxing him more than the loss of his husband.  As much as Jensen loved Jared and needed to see his husband well, the world was trying to tell him something and he’d yet to learn to listen to it.

 

In the four days since Jared’s abduction they had ridden hard and never managed to catch them.  They were running down another rumor now; a line of carriages and strange men that stopped in villages for the night but that left before full light. 

  
They were headed to the Pela Sea and it made Jensen think it was nothing, but even though his father ruled the sea, there could be a foe resting on the waters of the Kandili beaches.  

  
He heard a noise above him and Murray was opening his tent, staring in at him.  “You should be asleep, Your Majesty,” his knight reprimanded.

 

“As should you.  I’m certain that Kane will be enough to keep watch over me if you feel the need to have an extra guard while the others keep the outer watch.”

 

Murray smiled.  “A true knight can go for days without sleep, if he is of stout heart and-”

  
“firm resolve.  Yes, I remember the rules of the order.  It also says a true knight knows both wisdom and passion, yet follows them in equal measure.  He must weight both in his decisions to come to the correct choice.  Your paranoia on my behalf is more passion than wisdom my friend.”

 

Murray nodded, but backed out of the tent without another word.  Jensen got up then, walking into the night air and going to sit by the fire.  Kane nodded to him as he sat and Jensen just looked at the fire, listening to the wood pop and crackle.

 

“He’s going to be alright,” Kane said softly.

 

Jensen nodded, unsure what his voice would give away.

 

  
“He’s loved you to distraction since he met you,” the knight said softly.  It was the same sort of intimate conversation Jensen had just overheard and he wasn’t sure when he and the knight had become so familiar.  Perhaps it was the shared love they had; Danneel, Jared, and Murray.

 

“When he asked me to get Danneel, I knew you would join them.  I knew he’d found something special, something most people would die for; and he had it twice.”

 

Jensen didn’t know what to say, especially with the conversation he’d overheard.

 

  
“I’m telling you this because no matter what is happening; Jared has more to live for than any man I’ve ever met.  He loves his people and he loves his husband and wife, and he knows he is loved in return.  He knows we’re not ever going to give up.  Whatever happens, he’ll keep himself alive for that if nothing else.  Don’t give up on him, Jensen.  He won’t give up on you.”

 

Jensen took a deep breath, letting the surety of Kane’s words settle into his soul.  He felt stronger for it, for allowing Jared’s knight, protector, and brother to support him.  Once upon a time, taking a Kandili into his confidence would have been paramount to treason, but now it was holding his world together.  He stood, letting his hand drop to the other man’s shoulder.  “I will never give up on him, Chris.  We’ll get him back and we’ll get back to your sister.  No matter what else happens, I will never give up on that.”

  
  


 

Lehne stared down at Jared before offering him a hand.  The boat was rolling under him and though Jared had good sea legs, having his hands tied behind his back proved to make balancing difficult.  He had a cut over one eye from the fall and blood was beginning to seep down into his lashes.  

  
“Let’s find you a seat,” Lehne said as he steadied Jared.  

  
He pushed Jared back until there was a crate underneath him and he could rest himself on it.  Bracing his legs against the floor, he was able to feel more balanced.  The Torugan pulled out a small scrap of fabric from his belt and poured water from his canteen over it before putting it over the cut on Jared’s head.

 

“I thought you said he was unharmed.”  

  
Jared froze at the sound of the voice but he’d never expected to hear it on his current journey.  He leaned over, looking past Lehne’s shoulder to see the woman as she walked down the stairs and into the hull of the ship.  

  
She was dressed in the crisp wine colors of the Donoran crown, her hair held back tightly as was their way.  There was nothing Donoran in her eyes though as she glared at Jared.  She was pure Kandili blood and she was beautiful even in her betrayal.  

 

“Megan?”

 

She smiled at him, as sweet as she had the night he’d brought Jensen home after his abduction, her story validated by a dozen members of Jared’s own people.  While Megan had been a suspect in Jensen’s abduction after their marriage, she’d made a point of telling a gathering of people about the trail that Jensen had taken that morning and anyone passing by could have heard her.  Now, it was obvious she had been behind it.  

 

“Hello, Jared.  I’m not sure why you seem to be so surprised to see me here.  I tried to ruin your marriage and abduct your husband.  You didn’t think I’d stop just because my methods were lacking?  Father taught us better than that.”

  
He felt it like a smack to the face, that his little sister could turn her back to him so completely.  Megan had come to Kandilihar as the Crowned Princess of the Donaran Protectorate and she’d promised to explain their traditions to Jensen since the Pelagia tradition wouldn’t allow him to see his betrothed after they vowed to wed until the actual wedding.  Instead of helping Jensen understand them, she’d created a wedge between them.  When that hadn’t been enough, Jensen had been abducted and only the skill and bravery of Murray and Kane had gotten Jared to him in time.  

  
There were so many things he wanted to ask.  How could she betray her people?  Her family?  Why had she pinpointed Jensen?  Had she planned something for Danneel too?    

 

The only thing that would come though, was “Why?”

 

She sneered.  “I was sixteen, Jared.  Sixteen years old when Father made me marry Prince Daren.  I was married off to a middle aged scholar and you let him do it!”

  
Jared’s mouth dropped open at her words.  “I fought him every step of the way, Megan.  I tried to convince him you were too young and he was too old.  I told him we didn’t need a stronger alliance with the Donaran but he wouldn’t listen.”

  
“Liar!  You rode me to his palace and made sure I went where my duty proclaimed.”

 

“You said yes.  You went humbly without muttering a word.  You married him and you acted happy about it.”

  
“He was a scholar Jared!  He smelled like mildew and had stains all over his fingers from his inks.  How could I want to marry him, Jared?  He’s not a warrior!  He’s just a weak fool who wasn’t strong enough to defeat you.”

  
The boat swayed again and Jared almost fell even with the crate under him, but Lehne was there holding him up.  He caught Jared’s eye and there was something in them that Jared couldn’t read.  He thought, just maybe, it was disgust at his sister.  With the Torugan’s loyalty he didn’t know how they could be working for her, but he knew then that whatever else was happening, Lehne didn’t know what his sister had planned, nor had she told them why she was doing it.

  
“Daren is a good man, smart and wise and kinder than you deserve,” Jared said.  As right as Megan was about his abilities as a soldier – his strategies, while well read, were executed with little practical experience behind them – Daren had been a good king and it wasn’t until Gerald had decided to take over this kingdom that they’d ever had trouble.  He ruled them well, and he ruled as Prince of the Donara Protectorate with the same compassion and astuteness as he had when he was the King of his own country.  Jared liked Daren and he’d had hopes that they would be able to develop a friendship as Daren learned that Jared wasn’t like his father.  

 

It wasn’t likely to happen now, not with his little sister making a mess of the political unity that Jared had been striving for.  

  
“Daren doesn’t know how to handle a strong Queen.”

 

“You aren’t a queen Megan,” Jared reminded her.  It was too close to a threat against his beloved wife and he knew Megan had always had an issue with Jared taking a peasant as a wife.  Jared had married for love – twice – but Megan had never given Danneel a chance to prove herself.  She’d hated her on principle and stirred more than a little trouble with the orators over his wife’s station.  

 

“I will be,” she said with a smile.  “When I’m done, I will be the Queen of Toruga and the rest of the Six Realms will bow to me as well.”

 

“If you touch my wife-” he couldn’t think of anything wicked enough for what he would do to anyone who harmed one of his spouses.

  
“Oh Jared, I won’t hurt Danneel,” she said with a small smile.  “I’ll be there in person to deliver the message of your untimely death as you tried to defend the Pelagian royal family.  And your poor precious husband will come home to find the Pela Sea red with his blood.  I heard he’s been having nightmares, Jared.  Do you think he might be unstable?  I think, after your death, your dear husband will take his own life.  And I’ll be there to offer Danneel my condolences while the Torugan King makes mincemeat of your horsemen without you to lead them.”

 

Jared was aghast at the words Megan spat at him.  She’d been his beautiful flower once. He’d carried her on his shoulders and showered her cheeks with kisses and loved her and watched her grow into the beautiful blossom he’d thought her to be.  She was nothing of what he’d thought though.  She was fetid on the inside, dark and cancerous, eating away at the polished face she put on for everyone.  

 

“Now Lehne,” Megan said with a smile.

  
The man looked at Jared and sighed.  “Forgive me,” he whispered softly as Jared felt the prick of the needle against his arm.  Jared’s eyes felt heavy, but before he could pass out, he felt the press of a small blade between his hands.  It was pushed in so that Jared wouldn’t lose it while he slept and the last thing he heard before the darkness came was Megan walking back up the stairs and Lehne’s soft, calm voice.  “When you wake, remember the knife.”

  


 

Waking turned out to be harder than Jared would have thought.  There were a number of almost-awakenings over the next few days but Jared never made it to full consciousness.  He thought he heard King Alan’s voice at one point and he struggled to force his eyes awake, only to find the oil slick-smile of his sister.  Her hand was lifting the back of his neck and she was bringing a cup to his lips.  He couldn’t make out what she was saying, but as he tried to spit the water out, she forced it on him, all the while keeping the sound of a concerned sister in her voice.   
  


When he finally woke, he was alone in a room.  He knew where he was without question.  One of his favorite memories was in the very room; watching Danneel and Jensen take breakfast together for the first time the night after Jared had confessed his intentions to Jensen.  The Pelagian prince had been stunned by Jared’s words but the next morning when Jared went to talk to his wife, the man he’d believed he could love was there at his wife’s request.    
  


Being in the room now though made him feel sick.  He didn’t know what ruse his sister had used, but she’d gotten them in the Pelagian castle and he felt responsible for whatever happened.  

 

He struggled to sit up in the bed.  He felt weak and his head spun from the movement, but when he was upright he felt worse.  It wasn’t his physical body that was the problem then, but the stain of red that Jared recognized all too well.  Someone had died on the floor of that room and if there was a body in the castle, Jared knew there was more than one.  He had no idea what Megan’s exact plan was but she was obviously out to destroy the peace that Jared had been working for almost three years to instill.  

 

He was alone in the room and Jared let out a sigh of relief at that.  He didn’t know what Lehne was about anymore but he felt that he’d made some progress with the Torugan.  Remembering the last moment, Jared twisted his hand slightly and found the knife that had been pressed there.  He worked it down towards his fingertips so that he had better control of it, then started trying to cut through the ropes that bound him.  He could feel blood on his wrists as he worked on it but he kept going.  The knife was sharp and cut through the bonds quickly enough and Jared tucked it into the back of his pants.  He knew he wouldn’t be good in a fight - he was too weak - but he would do what he had to.  He’d fought in far worse shape before but this was entirely different.  He needed his wits about him if he was going to take on his little sister and her scheming.  

  
He felt like an idiot for not seeing it sooner.  He knew how his sister’s mind worked.  She was their father reborn and when she set her mind on something, she got it.  She schemed and begged and pleaded until she found a way.  

 

The door began to open and Jared moved quickly to the side of it.  The man was Torugan by dress but Jared didn’t know  
him.  The man looked to Jared’s bed and cursed and that was when Jared moved, using the rope he’d been tied up with to catch around his throat, quickly dropping him to the floor.  Jared pulled the man until he was lying under a pile of blankets on the other side of the bed.  He was just about to look for his boots when the door began to open again.

 

“Kandili?”

 

Jared moved away from the door at Lehne’s voice.  “What’s happening?”

 

“We move now.  The girl has taken the castle under guise of truce.  The family is dead.”

 

“What?”   
  


“The Ackles bloodline has paid her in blood.  The King and Queen were first, but the four children in the castle followed  
soon after they would not help her find your husband.”

 

Tears filled Jared’s eyes as he thought of Donna and Alan and how welcoming they’d been to him and his wife. He thought  
of having to tell his beloved husband that it had been his own sister who had ordered the slaughter of his family and he nearly lost his knees under him.  Lehne was there though, pulling him up.

“We do not have time for this, Rider.  I can get you out of here but there will be fighting and a long journey at the end.  Do  
you have the strength?”

 

Jared shook his head, trying to clear his eyes of tears but it wasn’t working.

 

“Rider!  She will steal your husband’s blood too and your wife when that is done.  She will destroy everything you love, just because you love it.  Will you fight that, or will you wilt under the heat of her anger?”

 

Jared thought about Jensen and Danneel and as hard as it was to think of the others dead, he had to move on for those he loved.  He’d promised the Pelagian family that he would love and care for Jensen until his dying day and he was far from done protecting his husband.  He’d fought battle after battle for his father.  He would do no less for the man he loved.  If he had to bloody the whole damn world he would do it to keep Jensen and Danneel safe.   

 

“Why are you helping me?” Jared asked before he answered anything else.  He’d been trying to get Lehne’s trust for days and now that he was willing to help he had to know what had changed the man’s mind.  

 

“I do not walk with The Fathers,” Lehne said softly, “but neither does Stuart.  The Fathers would not ask us to move against the King of Pelagia under the cover of friendship.  They would never make us slaughter the young for the sins of the father.”

 

“What sins did Alan ever commit against Toruga?”

 

Lehne’s blue eyes held Jared’s and there was a sadness there that Jared could plainly see.  “None, and we have bloodied his home for it. I could not stop what was happening here once I saw what she was doing, but I will not be a party to this anymore.  I will see you safe, Your Majesty.”

 

“What next?”

 

“There is a small craft on the water just past the breakers that we can take.  I know little of water but I can make this vessel float well enough to get us to the mainland.  If we can get there then we should be free, but there will a bloody path to it.”

 

Jared went to the window and threw the heavy drapes back.  “Show me.”

 

Lehne moved to his side, pointing to the small craft that was visible from where they stood.  It was a fishing vessel.  Tired as Jared was, he could make the swim.   The sun hadn’t risen all the way and it was a time when the guards of the castle would be less vigilant, almost ready for the relief of the next shift.

 

“I can get us to the beach,” Jared said to Lehne.  “There is a secret stair that will lead us down.  Can we get to the servant’s quarters?”

Lehne pulled a bag out from beside the door and opened it up.  He pulled out clothes and handed them to Jared.  “Let’s  
make you a Torugan and perhaps we can get there undetected.”

Jared changed quickly and he felt better with each movement.  He was working out days of inactivity and he was ready to  
get away from his sister’s clutches to find his own men and save the people he loved.  “Ready.”

Lehne handed him the canteen and Jared tipped it back for a quick drink.  “Thank you.”   
  


“Drink it all.  You have been cared for less than I would have liked but she would have no better.”   
  


 

He did as he was told then handed the canteen back to Lehne and the man dropped it into the pack and brought a full one out to his belt.  

Jared felt odd in the strange clothing of the Torugan but he didn’t comment.  The material was scratchy but tough and would see him through the fight.  It was neutral colored, meant to blend into the desert but it stood out against the castle walls.  Jared hunched his shoulders as he would when he was still a boy, coming into his height and ashamed to have surpassed his mentor’s height.  Kane had laughed at him for his foolishness but Jared had been good at hiding himself in those days.  Lehne nodded as they walked out into the hallway.  It was bustling with servants who were used to being up long before the royal family, preparing for the day to come.  Jared kept his head down, hoping to avoid anyone who might remember him from his last trip to Pelagia.  

 

Whether he was recognized or not – he wanted to believe he had been but that the servants were loyal to their King and not his sister – they made it to the servant quarters without interruption.  The Torugan had no servants so they avoided them with a certain disdain which made walking through their quarters easier.  When they found the door, Jared pushed at the spot on the wall that Alan had shown him.  It opened there and the key was still hidden inside the small drawer.  Jared took it out and opened the door.  No one even looked at it twice anymore.  It was a secret door in a hallway not often used.  They knew the door was there but no one had known how to open it or where the key was so they paid it no mind.  

 

When the door cracked open, Jared wished he had a way to hide the key there once again, but there was no way to do it.  He vowed to get back the Pelagian Castle someday and put it back in its rightful place.  

 

Lehne was silent behind him, determined and quick as he began to walk the long stair down to the beach below them.  It was a treacherous slope and there was only room for one man to go down at a time.  It was hidden from view by the rocks it had been built into but time and weather had rubbed it smooth.

 

They moved as quickly as they could, knowing that it would only be a matter of time and luck before they were discovered.  Jared did his best to keep up with Lehne but he knew the other man was holding back.  Jared kept going though, tight lipped as he continued to put one foot in front of the other.  

 

When they finally got to the bottom of the stair, there was a small strip of beach they had to cross.  The sand wasn’t warm, the sun still half hidden from view, but they moved as if it were.  There was no race across the beach to get to the water, but a quick, purposeful stride so as not to draw attention to themselves.  If the Torugans saw them there, a quick dash would draw their eye and they had no reason to know that the beach belonged only to the King of Pelagia.  They simply moved fast while Jared took deep breaths, trying to prepare himself for the rest of their escape.     

 

They reached the clear blue-green waters without notice.  They stripped their boots off and Lehne threw them in his bag for later.  Jared shivered as the cool waves spilled over his bare feet.  He didn’t have the reserve of strength he usually had and Jared was worried about the distance they had to swim.  The tide was with them but it didn’t mean Jared wasn’t worried about his stamina.  He just hoped Lehne didn’t need help swimming because Jared wouldn’t be able to give it.

 

“Ready?” Lehne asked.

 

Jared nodded.  “You?”

 

They looked at one another for a moment before they walked further into the water.  The waves pulsed around them, pushing Jared backwards at times and pushing him forward at others.  By the time he was deep enough to swim he was shivering all over.  Jared was afraid it was shock but he didn’t have time to consider it.  He had to get free and get back to his family.  Danneel and Jensen had to be warned about his sister.  Jared refused to think about the rest of it; his fear that Jensen would blame Jared for his family’s death, or the fact that Jared had just lost a friend and ally as well as the newest part of his family.  

 

Jared had no idea how long they swam.  He put his head down and just kept going, trying his best to match Lehne stride for stride.  His legs felt clumsy in the water as he continued to kick through the waves.  His arms grew tired and heavy but he couldn’t stop.  The only choice was escape or death and he could never give up when he had Jensen and Danneel out there waiting for him.

 

He didn’t feel like he could get enough breath though and he was sluggish and starting to fall behind.  He knew he was losing his battle but he dropped his head down and kept on though he had moved from shivering to full out shaking as he tried to swim out to the boat that Lehne had. 

 

When he hit his head it was unexpected.  He jerked back and found himself treading water in front of the small sailing vessel Lehne had found.  Jared grabbed the railing with one hand and looked over to see Lehne watching him.  A moment later, Lehne pulled himself up onto the ship and offered Jared a hand up.  Jared took it and found himself dumped onto the floor a moment later.  

 

He lay there for a moment, feeling the warmth of the sun on his skin before Lehne threw a blanket at him.  

 

“What now?” Jared asked, watching as Lehne began moving around the little sailing craft with the easy of a practiced man.  

 

“Now, I’ll sail us out of here and you’ll sleep.”

 

“Lehne-”

 

“Sleep or eat, then do the other.  When you’ve done that I can show you what you need to know to keep us on the right direction to get us to safety.  For now you should focus on rebuilding some of that strength.  I imagine we’ll need it before this all ends.”

 

Jared watched the man for a moment, then nodded.  He hated being in the other man’s debt after everything else that had happened, but he was and he decided his debt could wait a little longer to be paid.  He needed to eat something real – he didn’t know when he’d last eaten – and then some real rest.  He wasn’t sure he would be able to sleep well knowing that Jensen was somewhere unknown and his sister was hunting down the people Jared loved, that his wife was behind castle walls with their unborn child but with no warning of what his sister had done.  After Lehne showed him where he’d stowed their provisions, Jared ate a careful meal, then found himself pulled back into slumber as soon as he lay back down on the deck.

 

 

  
They sailed for two days, though Lehne admitted that his skills weren’t good and that they’d been off target somewhat and he’d had to correct them.  Jared smiled when he told Lehne it was probably why they hadn’t been caught yet – they were nowhere anyone would expect because they were lost – but then Lehne seemed to breathe easier as he recognized where they were.  

 

 

 

“Why here?” Jared finally asked as they set the vessel down on a small beach.  It was close to a village but Jared saw no reason why Lehne would pick it over any other.

 

 

 

“There were rumors that King Alan’s son had come here with a group of men who were trying to raise the villages to help them remove Megan.  I found merit in the rumors.”

 

 

 

“So we’re going where the Torugans expect us?”

 

 

 

“No, I made sure no one else knew.  I would not see you free and place you back in their hands in the same breath.  I made certain that Princess Megan sent her most loyal men in the wrong direction.”

 

 

 

Jared shook his head, giving Lehne a half smile.  “I’m glad you decided you liked me, Lehne.  You’re a formidable opponent.”

 

 

 

The man nodded but a second later he pushed Jared down onto the beach, drawing a sword from his belt and a long knife with his other hand.  Jared scrambled to his feet and it took a moment for him to realize what he was seeing.  

 

 

 

They were suddenly surrounded by a ring of roughly armed men.  Some wore bows and arrows that had seen better days, while others had bits and pieces of patched armor thrown over their clothes.  Lehne was in the absolute center of it with one of Jared’s own men trying to kill him.

 

 

 

“Collins! Stand down!”

 

 

 

The order was followed immediately with the scout turning his blade before it could come close to his opponent.  Not that Jared thought Lehne wouldn’t be able to turn the blade on his own, but Jared was glad he’d stopped it before there had been any bloodshed.  

 

 

 

“Your Majesty?”

 

  
Jared stood to his full height again, letting Collins look at him.  “It looks like the army seems to have taken new recruits in my absence.  Would you care to tell me what you’re doing here, Misha?”

 

 

 

The scout stared at him a moment longer, eyes darting over Jared’s body looking for any signs of damage.  Other than the fact that Jared had barely been fed and only occassionaly given water, he was physically fine.  

 

  
“Sir, we were following the Prince Consort’s orders.  After your abduction he ordered us to move on to Pelagia to let King Alan know that his son would be delayed.  We were to tell him that you had been abducted and we were able to fulfill our orders.  However, we left and tried to return to the Prince Consort.  He was moving swiftly though so we decided to come back and look for new signs of what had happened to you.  When we arrived back at Pelagia, we found the castle flying the Torugan flag and Prince Joshua and Princess Jesina were in hiding.  Knowing the bond between Kandilihar and Pelagia, we decided it was in the best interests of our people to protect the Prince and Princess until such a time as one of the Triune ordered us elsewhere.”

 

 

 

“You know where Joshua is?”

 

 

 

Collins nodded and Jared let out a deep sigh of relief.  He looked back at the man who had helped him escape and nodded towards him.  “This is Lehne.  He was one of my captors but he realized what was happening and he led my escape.  You will treat him as if he were a knight of our order, understood?”

 

 

 

Collins’ eyes went wide for a moment as he looked at the Torugan but he nodded.  “Or course Your Majesty,” he said with a low bow.  The men around him didn’t seem to know what to do, but as soon as one of them decided to bow before Jared the rest tried.  

 

 

 

Jared sighed.  “You wouldn’t bow for my husband if he were standing before you so please don’t do so for me.”

 

 

 

Jared ached to have his husband there, to be among the people with him, but Jared knew that the royal family, while demanding the respect that was due them, did not insist on the formality that the royal families of many countries did.  

 

 

 

“What are your orders, Sir?” Collins asked.

 

 

 

“We need to talk to Joshua before we can do anything else.”

 

 

 

Collins called his men away, shouting orders for them to prepare for the ride.  Jared knew it was going to be a long journey, no matter the time it took them to get there.  Lehne took a place at his side though and smiled at Jared.  “He was good, but not good enough.”

 

 

 

Jared laughed.  “You think you can best one of my scouts?”

 

 

 

“I know I could.”  

 

 

 

Jared shook his head, but he felt the smile more than he had since he’d been taken from his husband.  “We’ll have to see what you do with a knight then.  Or my husband.”

 

 

 

“You think you will be able to find him soon?”

 

 

 

“I hope so.”  Jared knew he sounded wistful but he wouldn’t feel at ease until he had Jensen back in his arms again.  “I can’t find him until I’ve dealt with his brother though.”  Lehne looked at him for a moment but looked away.  “What?”

 

 

 

“Your sister said you married the Pelagian prince for the political power, but though I have watched you for that sort of calculating manner, I have not seen it from you.”

 

 

 

Jared shook his head.  “My sister isn’t the woman I thought she was and maybe she could have tried to gain power in that fashion but I never could.  When my father tried to force my hand, I ran to the stables to get away but there she was.  The daughter of one of our stable hand’s, hair full of hay from wrestling with her brother as I walked in, but she was glorious.  I married her for love and I married my husband for love.  Jensen is,” he shook his head, “there are no words to describe what Jensen is to me, of what the three of us have when we are together.  I would give my throne a thousand times over to save them from this but I have little choice in these matters.  What I know is that I married where my heart led me and my sister seems to hate me for it, though I had tried to keep our father from arranging her marriage.”

 

 

 

“The Fiery Queen is spoken of well among my people.  She doesn’t count the silver when we come into her home and she seems to enjoy the bargaining that happens when we are at the Faire.”

 

 

 

Jared laughed.  “Danneel looks forward to the Torugan every year.  My wife believes that it was bargaining with your people that allowed her to learn how to handle the orators when they tried to stand against our joining.”

 

  
Lehne smiled at that but he was watching Collins as the men prepared for their departure.  “He is loyal to you.”

 

 

 

“He is a good man,” Jared said softly.

 

 

 

“So are you,” Lehne was looking ahead, his eyes taking in their surroundings but his voice had the ring of intimacy in it.  “You have their loyalty because you have earned it.  The Torugan have always followed with such loyalty, but I have broken my oath with my King because he was not a man of your ilk.  I do not wish for my own people to break oath, but I would not have them follow a man who was not worth his name.  I don’t know how this will all end but I think the Six Lakes Realm trembled on your father’s whims but never saw the real danger.  While they feared what your father would do, it was you that was meant to shake the foundations of our world.”

 

 

 

Jared didn’t know what to say to that, and when he looked up he saw that Misha was close enough to have heard as well.  The scout stared at him a moment longer before turning to lead the men back to the eldest Prince of Pelagia.

 

 

 

 

  
They rode slowly, allowing Jared some respite from the trials he’d faced though he would have preferred speed.  Lehne seemed grateful enough for the slow place.  A Kandili stallion wasn’t meant to be ridden by the meek and though Lehne was a warrior, he had far more skill with a boat than a horse.  

 

Jared knew there was more to it than that though.  Collins rode close to Jared, but he also spoke to Lehne with courtesy and asked after his health as a knight should another.  Collins was showing the men as they rode that Lehne was not the enemy; no matter that Torugan flags flew over the Pelagian castle. 

 

 

 

Jared had a feeling it would take more than that to convince Joshua of the man’s nature but he had time to try to figure out the best approach to his brother-in-law.  

 

  
  


 

He felt a canteen against this shoulder and looked over at Lehne, giving him a small smile for it.  He took the water without mentioning the canteen someone had wrapped over the pummel of his saddle.  He drank before he passed it back and accepted the dried meats Lehne handed him.

 

 

 

“How did it happen?”  Jared asked.  When Lehne gave him a strange look, he clarified.  “My sister.  How did she get an army of Torugan soldiers and why is she flying a Torugan flag over Pelagia when she is married to the Donaran Prince?”

 

 

 

Lehne sighed deeply.  “All men face temptation and not even those that walk with the Fathers are exempt.  She is beautiful, your sister, and when she chooses to be she is very charming.  King Stuart is a young man, strong but still unwise in the ways of the heart it would seem.  He saw her on a visit to her husband's homeland.  Stuart was newly crowned and Princess Megan gave him the attention he felt befitted his station.  He has never thought overly well of the scholar-Prince and I believe that Princess Megan was manipulating him even then.  It wasn’t until this very journey that I realized the true extent of it.  My people are warriors and we speak our mind.  We are guarded in our dealings with the outside world because we have come to learn that what we hear is not always what we have been told.  Your sister, married though she was, promised Stuart her hand and her first born if he would help her gain what should have been hers.”   
  


 

“Pelagia?”

 

Lehne shook his head.  “The Six Lakes Realm.  She said that her father meant for the Kandili crown to rule it all and that she was his chosen successor.  He had handed her the crown of Donara to make use of until you fumbled the crown of Kandilihar and she could claim power.  She believed that your marriage to the Pelagia Prince was a sign of weakness and that it was time for her to claim the Kandili crown and her father’s legacy.”

 

 

 

Jared shivered at the thought of his father’s bloody wars, returned again.  Megan had been little more than a child when she'd been married off to Price Daren to give the people security after the military takeover.  Megan had never know the horrors of war the way Jared had and he'd always been grateful for that.  Megan had always seemed like such a loving sister, caring and compassionate, and he'd felt a need to shelter her from the harsher realitites of the world, but the words she’d thrown at him when he’d been in her custody had shown him how wrong he was about her.  That she could think to continue with his father’s war was reprehensible.  Jared had fought in every skirmish his father had schemed up and he’d killed good men for no other reason that his father wanted more. Though Megan had been stubborn and headstrong and sometimes devious, Jared couldn’t reconcile the child he’d known with the scheming woman who would kill the Pelagian royal family and come after her own brother.

 

  
“I can’t let her do this,” Jared said softly.  “I loved my father as any child should and I was loyal to him, but his wars were pointless.  We had no need of more land or more money.  Kandilihar has always been enough.”

 

“Why do you not return the Protectorates their crowns then?” Lehne asked.

 

  
Jared wished he had.  He’d talked long about it with his closest advisors after his father’s death.  Jared didn’t want to rule more than one kingdom.  He was proud of his people and he was honored by their loyalty to him – especially after his father had sent so many men to their deaths – but the protectorates had all had problems of their own before they’d been invaded.  In the aftermath of his father’s death and Jared’s crowning he’d felt that restoring the Protectorates at that time would leave them to unstable to fend for themselves against the outside realms and with one another.     
  


 

“When my father died, I wanted to," Jared explained.  "I know what people thought of me back then; more ruthless than my father, cold and distant, and I never balked at an order given.  The truth was that my father and I waged war on one another constantly when no one else could hear.  There were orders that I refused.  If I had tried to stand up to him though it would have ended in civil war though and I could never do that to my people.  What I feared when he died was that people would see a return of the Protectorate crowns as a sign of weakness and attack.  Even worse in my mind was that they would see it as a trick and I would never be able to gain the loyalty and friendship of the other monarchs.”

 

 

 

“You planned on doing it then?”

 

 

 

“I still do,” Jared said softly.  “Ruvien is finally coming out from under the drought that nearly destroyed their economy and Lastoran is no longer reliant on Kandili or Pelagian fundsthe way it was when LaRoche led the uprising that ended the slavery that their country was based on.  The Donaran Academy runs itself with only the slightest nod from Prince Daren, let along a foreign monarch.  When I married Jensen, it became even trickier.  People began to wonder if I was marrying the Prince to gain Pelagian control when my father could never find a way to conquer it.”

 

 

 

“And Princess Megan took what your father could not and what you would never soil,” Lehne said.

 

  
“Megan did and for that I will strip her of her titles when we meet again.  But for what she has done to the people who opened their arms to me as family should?  She may be her father’s daughter, but she is no sister of mine.”

 

 

 

 

  
The village square was crowded, though not more than it should be.  Considering Jared knew Joshua was there, he was surprised at the orderly way people moved about their business.  Their king was dead and a foreigner was in their castle, while the rightful King mourned amongst them.

 

 

 

A door to the inn opened and a stream of soldiers came out, giving Jared more of what he’d expected.  He nodded at the formation of the men as they stood between Jared and Joshua but Collins had his own men between them as well.  Collins was standing between Lehne and an incident but the Torugan seemed no more unsettled than he had by anything else on their journey.

 

 

 

“Jared?”

 

 

 

Prince Joshua’s voice caught his ear before the man stepped out into the sun.  For a moment, Joshua looked like his brother – the same full lips and short cropped hair – but it was their eyes that were so different and Jared ached in that moment.  He missed his husband, but more than that, he wanted to grieve with him for what had been taken from him.  The only thing Jared could be happy about in the whole mess of events was that his abduction had kept Jensen from being at the Pelagian castle when Megan killed his family.

 

 

 

“Joshua,” his voice was full of grief, but Jared didn’t know how Joshua would respond to it.  They had developed an easy relationship while Jared had been courting Jensen, even if Joshua hadn’t known Jared was courting him.  Nothing could change the fact that Jared's sister had wielded the knife that had killed Joshua's family though.  

 

 

 

“I was afraid she’d killed you too,” Joshua said as he came closer.  Jared dismounted and then Joshua was there, pulling him close.  In a voice meant solely for Jared he continued.  “Some believed your captivity a ruse but I know you would never give Jensen over to her.”

 

 

 

When he pulled back, Jared knew the embrace was meant to alleviate any doubt that the others might have about him.  “I was able to escape when a Torugan came to my rescue.  He brought me away from the castle and I was found by my men who were watching the shores.  Lehne didn’t know what Megan had planned and he has given his oath for my safety.”

 

  
Joshua’s face turned stony but Jared knew from days at court with him that it was the diplomat coming to play.  Lehne chose that moment to walk to Jared's side.  “King Joshua of Pelagia, this is Lehne, a Torugan soldier.  He seems as serious about keeping me free of my sister as Kane or Murray would be.”

 

 

 

Joshua nodded as he looked Lehne over, assessing.  “Were you there when they died?”

 

 

 

Lehne shook his head.  “I was in the castle, tending to King Jared.  I regret that I was not able to do anything to stop the madness.  King Alan was a faithful leader and one that was more deserving of loyalty than my own.”  Joshua’s eyes widened at the words and Jared could understand that.  He was still having a hard time hearing a Torugan speak against his own.  “I have pledged to keep King Jared safe from the shama’che, until he is able to restore the balance.”

 

 

 

When Joshua frowned, Jared spoke.  “A shama’che is a faithless leader; someone that leads without walking with the Fathers and does so only for their own personal gain.”

 

 

 

“My brother will thank you for seeing his husband safe, that is for certain.”

 

 

 

Jared could see Joshua struggling with the conversation.  Lehne had come to Pelagia in guise and his people had killed Joshua's family.  Jared was amazed he’d been able to continue as long as he had.  

 

 

 

“Is there somewhere more private we can talk?  Lehne was able to intercept rumors of your location and send Megan looking in the wrong direction but we shouldn’t assume they will be the only rumors.”

 

  
Joshua nodded.  “Of course.  We’ve been at the Inn, trying to find a way to remove your sister from my throne.”

 

  
Joshua was watching him closely and Jared knew why.  He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.  He’d been trying to avoid the thought of his beautiful little flower being captured or hurt, but Megan had killed and she’d tried to take a throne.  No matter how much he’d loved his little sister, Megan would die.  He prayed to the Jade Crown it never became a matter of Donaran justice because it would be Jared who would have to pass judgment and he wasn’t sure he could order his sister’s death without destroying a part of himself.  No matter who she had become since they’d last shared true confidences.  

 

 

 

“We should join you then.  Lehne will be able to tell you of the men Megan brought with her.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

“How did it happen?”

 

 

 

It seemed to be Jared’s favorite question but he had to know.  He had to understand what Megan had done.  Lehne was sitting by the fire, keeping his distance from the conversation but close enough to hear.  Joshua was trying not to notice the man.  It was a delicate act and Jared would have been impressed with the dance they were doing if it had been under other circumstances.  

 

 

 

“A carriage came to the castle,” Joshua said quietly, staring down at his hands.  “We’ve had trouble with the Donaran throne since Jensen was named Triune but I thought it was laughable.  No one who knew you or my brother could think you were marrying for power.  My brother loves you and it was obvious to us that you loved him as well when he accepted your marriage proposal.  Father took it seriously though and reminded me that your sister had not fared as well in marriage as you had.  When we found out that Jensen had been abducted he was certain that she was behind it, but she hid her tracks.  We would have turned aside her carriage if you hadn’t been with her, but as she spoke to Father, she said you were with her and that you had grown ill.  We allowed her in when we saw you.  She said that she was travelling with a Torugan guard on a mission from her husband when she came across your abductors.  We believed her.  She seemed genuinely distressed with your condition and the healers left her to take care of you.  That night, when we slept, she opened the gates to the Torugan soldiers.  They killed anyone who fought and had us rounded up in the great hall.  She started asking my father about Jensen and where he was, but Father spit in her face.”  

 

  
Joshua closed his eyes and took a deep breath but his voice caught as he spoke again.  “She had Jenevieve killed for it.  The others died quickly but Father never gave Jensen away.  No matter what she said, we were never going to live.  Protecting Jensen was the only thing we had. He,” Joshua’s breath shuddered and he let out a soft sob before gaining control again.  “Jensen is the best of us, of Pelagia.  I think Megan would burn the entire world to get her hands on him.  Jesina fainted and I think it was the only reason I wasn’t killed then.  Megan killed Father and ordered me to care for Jesina so that she could be tortured for the answer in the morning.  I carried her to the healer’s halls and almost dropped her when she whispered that we had to run.  I knew what she wanted and it was the only chance we had.  We couldn’t escape the castle but we were quick and only those who knew the castle well understood that the tower on the western wing has a window that lets out over top of the ocean below.  We jumped and that was how we escaped.  I don’t know how long it took them to learn of our escape, but we would have been found that day if not for your men.”

 

  
“I am grateful that my men were able to help you, but I am stricken by your loss.”

 

  
Joshua placed his hand gently on Jared’s arm.  “My father considered you a friend even before you were his son-in-law.  He was proud to call you both.  I will not allow your sister’s intentions to overshadow my father’s judgment of you, nor my own.  I will get Pelagia back and there will still be family between us.  Kandili king you may be, but you wed a Prince of Pelagia and that makes you one of ours as well.”

 

 

 

Jared looked at Joshua and he knew then why this was the child Alan had chosen to follow in his footsteps.  It wasn’t because Joshua was oldest, but because he was able to see into the heart of the matter, much the way Jensen could.  

 

  
“I will do everything in my power to help you rid Pelagia of my sister, but I need to find my husband first.  If she is so bloodthirsty to have him, she cannot be allowed to.”

 

 

 

“I would be disappointed if you thought otherwise,” Joshua said seriously.  “I have lost a sister and three brothers.  Take care of the only brother I have left.”

 

 

 

  
“What will you do now?”

 

 

 

“Find a way in.  Find an army to fight her with when we get the chance.”

 

 

 

“Kandilihar will come to your aid,” Jared assured him.  “I will send word to Danneel immediately.”

 

 

 

“King Jared,” Lehne interrupted.  “Kandilihar will be hard pressed to send help if we don’t come to its aid first.”

 

 

 

“What?”

 

 

 

“King Stuart has been preparing to lay siege to the Kandilihar castle.  He has long said it would be a fight worth seeing but in recent months he has called the clans together.  We did not know what he was planning but I can see his purpose clear enough now.  Without you there, he will attack the castle and it will fall.  Megan will hold Pelagia in his name and the whole of the Six Lakes Realm will be under their rule.”

 

 

 

“How is this possible?” Jared asked in disbelief.

 

 

 

“The people are not ready to move out yet though,” Lehne continued.  “Only some of the clansmoved tot he staging grounds.  If we can get to the others, if we can convince them, the way you convinced me, then we can win them to your side.  We can end this war before Kandilihar falls and the rest of your blood is lost.”

 

 

 

Jared knew the terror that had to show on his face because it was mirrored in Joshua’s.  “I’ll send word to Danneel with Collins.  He’ll get it to her even if no one else could.”  He looked back at Lehne.  “When can we leave for your people?”

 

  
“Come dawn.  Sleep well tonight, King Jared.  I will lead you to my people but they are hard roads and you have already been sorely used.”

 

 

 

Lehne left then and Jared didn’t bother to see where he’d gone.  The soft whisper of his voice outside with Collins let him know that he was making sure Jared’s provisions were taken care of for the journey.

 

 

 

Joshua stood after a few minutes and looked out the window to the darkening sky.  “Do you trust him Jared?  Do you really trust him?”    

 

 

 

“I do.  I wouldn’t have been able to get away without him.  Before we got off the boat, he gave me a knife to free my hands when I woke.  I don’t think he understood how ruthless Megan was until then.  If we can turn the Torugans against Stuart and Megan then we might have a chance of stopping this before it goes too far.  I have to give this a chance.”

 

  
Joshua nodded as he turned away from the window and stood in front of Jared.  “Just take care.  My brother will be grieving.  I don’t want to be the one to add to his grief by having to include you to the echoes in his dreams.”

 

  
A knock on the door interrupted Jared from asking what Joshua meant by echoes in his dreams.  Jensen had been plagued with terrible dreams for months and Jared had never thought to ask Alan or his family if there was something more to it than the rocky past and an unsettling feeling they’d all had lately about the state of the Realm.

 

  
“King Jared, Lehne said you had need of me,” Collins said as he came in.

 

“I will need you to take a letter to my wife,” Jared said softly.  “We need to let Danneel know what happened here so she can be ready.  You’ll leave immediately and return with her answer for King Joshua.  I’m leaving the men here with you, except Benedict and Cohen who will be traveling with me.”

 

 

 

“And where will you be heading?” Collins asked.

 

 

“Into the viper’s nest I’m afraid.”

 

  


  


 

“None of this makes any sense,” Jensen said as he closed his eyes and looked up at the stars.  They’d stopped for the night and Jensen had no idea what to say to the men in the morning.  They’d been following Jared’s trail and it led to Pelagia but other than that, Jensen couldn’t figure out what it meant.   

 

The last people who had seen two carriages riding through with a contingent of men said they saw one man being carried into a house as if he were ill but when Jensen went to question the owners of the home, it was vacant.  It left little doubt in his mind that his husband had been injured in some way and he tried to push away the fear that came with the thought.  Jared was a hardened warrior and a knight of renown.  Jensen knew he had survived worse; he had lovingly learned every scar that Jared proudly bore for his people.  

 

Murray and Kane were sitting close by, the rest of the men moving quietly among themselves as they finished their meal and prepared for bed.  Jensen wouldn’t run them into the ground but they would be moving when it was light enough for the scouts to find the trail again.  

 

He saw the shadow moving closer and wasn’t surprised when Murray came to lie beside him, a warm comforting presence at his side.  “You should sleep.  The men will start to see those circles under your eyes and fear that Jared will take them to task for it when we find him.”

 

Jensen gave a soft snort at that.  “If that’s what the men fear at the end of this road then perhaps I should share a few dreams.”  He hadn’t meant to say it, hadn’t meant to mention his dreams to Murray in any way but especially not as bitter as it came out.  

 

He scrubbed his hand over his face, knowing that Murray’s concern wasn’t entirely unfounded.  Jensen had been having trouble with disturbing dreams for months before this had happened.  It seemed childish to call them nightmares when the daylight did nothing to remove the fear they left within him.  Jared and Danneel had found their own way to lighten his moods – and not all of them involved the bedroom – but he was bereft of them both now and he had no time to try to regain some of his lost sleep.  They were gaining on their target but not enough.  Every time one of the scouts came back with news, Jensen feared it was Jared’s body they had found.  

 

Rationally, he knew it wasn’t.  Whoever had taken Jared wanted something more than his death or they’d have found him dead but that didn’t keep the fear from gripping him anyway.  He pushed the fear aside though, the loss of his husband, and focused on what he knew was true.  His husband was alive and Jensen would part the Pela Sea is he had to in order to find him.  Jared knew that and Jared had to know that Jensen was coming for him so he would do whatever he could to stay alive.  And at his side, he had Murray and Kane and the men that Jared had handpicked over the years to be his personal legion and friends.  Not one of them would give up on Jared.

 

“Jensen, you don’t have to hold onto this burden alone.”

 

Jensen sighed, knowing well enough that Murray wouldn’t leave it alone.  It had happened in the past, though never with the intensity and frequency the dreams took now.  “My father and I talked about it before the wedding and Jared and Danneel agreed when I brought it up with them.  The silence in the past three years has been a welcome peace, but we all felt it was the eye of the storm; something menacing has been at work behind the stillness and it has become stagnation and not peace.  The dreams show me nothing but coming death and misery.”

 

“And there is no light?  No hope?”  Murray asked.  

 

“There is always hope, as you well know,” Jensen said with a small smile.  “No matter how dark the dreams, there is always something there, something calling to me that showers with the warmth of the sun.  It has been so overcast with shadow and ash and flame and blood that I can hardly see it though.”

 

Murray nodded.  “Then you had best rest tonight, because if this is the eye of the storm and King Gerald’s rule was just the path to the eye then you will need your strength to see us through it.”

 

It wasn’t comforting, but it was practical and Jensen let out a deep breath at the familiarity of it.  There was enough to worry about as it was, without borrowing the brooding trouble of his dreams.  He had a husband to find and somewhere out there behind castle walls was his wife, waiting for word that they were coming home.  He felt a pang at how little he thought of her at the moment, but he couldn’t focus on Danneel when she was safe.  If he did, his thoughts turned to a child who may never know his father and a mother grieving for the man who would never return.  He avoided the thought of teaching their child of the man his father was because he would never know him.  He avoided anything that might drag him further down the mire of doubt than he already was.  Instead he focused on the knowledge that Danneel and her child were safe and that Jensen would have Jared safe in his arms as soon as possible.

 

He didn’t hope his dreams would be light after those thoughts, but he closed his eyes, knowing a few hours of tossing and turning were better than none; for his body anyway.

 

  
  


“My Lord, a rider, probably a messenger.”

 

Jensen called a halt immediately and the men circled in a protective formation around the Prince Consort as they awaited news.  If it had been a simple man passing them by then Able wouldn’t have dashed back to warn them.  Able had been extremely protective of Jensen since he had recovered from his injury and tracked them down.  He still wasn’t at his best, Kane had confided in Jensen and Murray one night, but even as he was, he was still the best scout they had.  Only Collins was better and his determination to right what he considered his fault made him steadfast.

 

He saw the moment when the rider noticed their formation.  He veered towards them instead of angling away, his steed picking up pace as he ate away the distance between them.  

 

“It’s Collins,” Able suddenly shouted, kicking his horse forward before Jensen could be sure of his assessment.  Kane relaxed at his side and even though Jensen couldn’t make out the man well enough to agree, Able was the most longsighted of them and Kane trusted in that.  

 

The two men met between but the exchange was brief before they approached.  The formation around Jensen broke from a word from Kane and the midday break was called while they waited for the scouts.

 

“Your Highness,” Collins bowed in his saddle as the Kandili knights were wont to do but Jensen waved it away.  In the castle, the Kandili people knew he demanded no formality but when they were outside of the castle they tended towards the formal again, something that irked and amused him in equal measure.

 

Jensen dismounted and handed Collins his water skin.  The man took it, allowing Jensen to lead him to the side where they could talk in private.  Kane was moving among the men, tending to sores and injuries, keeping morale up, but Murray was close by, keeping watch over them and their privacy.

 

“Collins, you have news?”

 

Collins nodded.  “In truth, I was to deliver a letter for your wife.  Your husband has been secured.  He was taken to Pelagia where he escaped with the help of a Torugan soldier.”

 

Jensen pulled back a step, uncertain.  “Pelagia?  Why would Jared need escape from Pelagia?”

 

“You have not heard?”

 

Collins’ voice sent a chill down Jensen’s spine and he shook his head.  “What has happened in Pelagia?”

 

“My Lord,” he paused but then placed a hand on Jensen’s arm in a move that was far more familiar than he had ever used before.  He pulled slightly and Jensen let himself be sat on the soft green grass.  Collins was in front of him, his eyes sorrowful.  

 

“Jensen, we were betrayed.  Jared was abducted by his sister.  She drugged him as a ruse to get into the Pelagian castle.”

 

“My father?”  He already knew.  He closed his eyes and tried to keep the tremors from his voice.  “My family?”

 

“King Joshua escaped with Princess Jesina.  Megan killed the others in an attempt to find you.  The Torugan flag flies over the Pelagian castle now.”

 

He felt empty, unable to process the emotions that ran through him.  His mind jumped from memories of history lessons with his father and tea with his mother to teaching Jenevieve to sail kites over the castle walls and training with his brothers in arms.  His mind latched onto the only thing he could process yet.  “Torugan?”

 

“Megan has made promises to the King of Toruga, though it was one of his own soldiers that helped Jared escape.  Jared bade me to deliver a message to Danneel to warn her that the Torugans may be planning to attack the Kandili castle.  He is heading to Toruga itself, with the man who helped him, to try to turn the people away from King Stuart and to see if he can gain their trust and support in removing Megan from Pelagia.”

 

“I will have a letter for you as well then,” Jensen said.  He knew he couldn’t return to the castle so long as his family's throne was in danger.  He ached to see his brother and sister, to feel Joshua’s steady presence and Jesina’s bubbly laughter, but they were on the brink of war and he knew where he could do the most good.

 

Jared was good with the Torugans – they saw his strength of body and mind as an indication of an even greater spirit – but Jensen was better.  He understood the clans more and if they were turn a people against their king, a people known for their loyalty, they needed every break they could get.  

 

“I am sorry you will have to face the Fiery Queen with these messages my friend, but I have to give aid to Jared.  How far behind are we?”

 

“Two days, but Jared had been drugged and was not well when we parted.  He will be fine with proper food and sleep, but he is moving slower than he wants and the Torugan will only allow him to push so far.  You should be able to make up ground if you ride well.”

 

Jensen clapped his shoulder and let out a deep breath.  “Find something to eat and rest a few minutes Collins, then bring me paper and pen.”

 

Collins knew when he was being dismissed and Jensen was left alone.  He closed his eyes as he felt Murray moving in front of him.  “Stay, please,” he said softly.  It was a plea for Chad to remain as he was, a shield between Jensen and the men and he couldn’t hold himself together any longer.

 

“Jensen?”

 

“Pelagia runs the Torugan flag,” Jensen answered the question softly.  It was unfair of him to ask Murray to stay where the was then, to expect the man to remain untouched by what he was to say next but he couldn’t let anything show to the men.  Something must have shown in Murray’s stance though because Kane was there, pressing a water skin into the knight’s hand and pushing him down as he himself took position a few feet away, carefully grooming Jensen’s horse to give them an even larger shield.

 

“King Joshua,” he nearly fumbled over the title itself but his brother was king now and he deserved the title, “escaped with Jesina.  Megan of Donara killed the others.”

 

“Jared’s sister?”

 

Jensen nodded.  “She drugged him to gain entrance to the castle.  One of the Torugans helped Jared escape.  He is headed to Toruga to gain the clan’s support against their King.”

 

“She was behind your abduction then, as we had suspected at the time,” Murray said softly.

 

“I fear she is behind much more than that now.”  The sob that had been threatening to rise did then and a moment later, Chad’s hand was on the back of his neck, pulling their foreheads together.  With anyone else it would have been too familiar, but Murray had taken him as ward when Jensen was barely a boy and he had patched far more scratches and aches than his parents had.  Murray’s presence was comfort in and of itself and the understanding they shared of who Jensen was and the many warring needs in him kept Murray’s silence when Jensen needed it the most.

 

In the distance he could hear the men, not yet privy to the details of the Pelagian massacre.  The soft neighing of a horse brought it back into focus, as well as the soft sure sweeps of a brush over his mare’s flanks.  When Jensen was finally able to look up, he knew that Kane was already aware of Collins’ news and that the knight would follow Jensen to Toruga to stop the war, even if Jared hadn’t been on his way there himself.  

 

He took a few more minutes to calm himself and then he motioned Collins back to him.  He had to write to Danneel, ask her to send what help she could to Joshua and to tell her to take care of herself.  Words couldn’t express his love for her, but she would read it into them anyway.  

 

When Murray stepped away, Jensen noticed the soft words that passed between Kane and his knight, before Murray took up the care of Jensen’s mare while Kane went to give the news to the men.

 

 

As much as Jared wanted to travel faster, at the end of each day he felt more like the torn grass beneath his horse’s hooves than a Kandili knight.  Lehne controlled the pace and though Jared would have pushed ahead, the other man was the only one who could take them where they needed to go.  While King Stuart had a large portion of their men at the Kandili border, the clans that had not yet been called would be gathering close to the capital city where they could trade news and goods while they waited to see what King Stuart was calling them for.  

 

“This isn’t going to be easy,” Jared said softly as he patted the horse’s mane.  The horse whinnied as Jared moved his hands over the warm body, checking for anything that might be amiss.  The Torugan was doing his best with the horses but he wasn’t a fan of the giant beasts and Kandili breeds weren’t known for their timidity.  He could almost wish that they’d had a Ruvien stallion, but though they were good for training and fast, they didn’t have the stamina of his own stock, nor the weight and strength to carry a fully armored knight.  

 

His hands continued to check the horse but his mind wandered back to his missing husband and the wife they’d left behind in Kandilihar.  Danneel would be furious that he hadn’t returned and he’d pay for it for some time to come, but she would still understand his need.  He was more worried about the anger she would have that he hadn’t seen to Jensen’s safety before traveling on.  As much as Jared wished he could, he didn’t have a choice.  The motions had been set and he had to get a step ahead of his sister before she destroyed everything that Jared believed in, everything that he loved.  

 

“I don’t think the beast will ease your fears,” Lehne said as he came closer.  

 

Jared smiled at the other man.  “If soothing a horse can’t ease it a little, I don’t think anything will.  It’s why we’re Kandili.  Nothing feels impossible with one of the great breeds beneath you.”

 

He heard Cohen’s snort and when he looked up Benedict had a sly smile on his face.  “If you mention the Queen Cohen, I might have your life for it," Jared jested.  They all needed the release of laughter after their recent days.  

 

“I would be more concerned about his intentions towards the Prince Consort, my King,” Benedict said.  “Cohen seems rather taken with his smile.”

 

Cohen made a lunge for Benedict but the smaller man was quicker.  There was a reason Jared had chosen the two men of those who had been with them.  Cohen was one of his stronger knights, young and ready to march to his king’s orders whereas Benedict was one of the fastest scouts they had and he had been the best of those he’d left behind, outside of Collins himself.  In moments like this, he wished for Kane at his side.  Or Carlson and Able.  Danneel’s brother was with Jensen though and Jared was grateful, knowing that the best of his men were with his husband.  He didn’t know what had happened to Carlson and he feared the attackers had tossed him into the fire where he would never be found.  He wouldn’t know until the day he was able to get back to his husband.  

 

“I wouldn’t worry about Jensen’s honor too much Benedict,” Jared said with a laugh.  “I’m fairly certain he could best the both of you.”

 

Lehne watched them curiously and Jared didn’t try to explain their behavior.  Jared didn’t have many people he could relax around but the knights that he’d personally led in battle were among the few.  Jared was always aware that he was the king and so were they, but they also knew there was a time when being the king interfere with being a good soldier and Jared expected the best of his knights.  

 

The Torugan fought hard and fast, efficiency of motion and grace in action, but they had a social hierarchy that Jared didn’t understand.  It wasn’t just who was strongest in battle or who had the fattest purse.  Jensen had tried to explain it to him, but neither he nor Danneel had followed the examples that Jensen gave.  Danneel had laughed at his frustration and given him free reign to help handle the Torugan delegates, just so long as Danneel still got to haggle at some point.   It had ended with Jensen’s accusation that Danneel just wanted to watch him haggle so that she might gain an advantage when the Great Faire came and the Torugan merchants settled in with their wares.  Danneel didn’t deny it and Jared had never been happier, watching his wife and husband banter back and forth.  It had only been weeks ago, though Jared felt it had been years since he’d held Danneel in his arms.  

 

Lehne walked away, shaking his head and Jared figured it was the strangeness of the Kandili that had him retreating to his rations.  Lehne was a good man though and there was nothing of disgust in his visage, just the understanding that it was a culture he was seeing for the first time at a close proximity.

 

Benedict intercepted the man, pointing out the landscape that was beginning to move away from lush forests and plains to rangy grasslands.  Soon, desert sand would be beneath their feet as they left the Pelagian border and entered into the Torugan countryside.  

 

“Your Majesty,” Cohen came up slowly, nodding in respect.

 

“You’ve never needed to call me Your Majesty int he field before,” Jared teased.

 

“When I’m speaking to a fellow knight that may be, but I’m speaking to my king now.”  

 

Jared stiffened at those words.  It didn’t happen often that one of the men came to him like that.   “I understand.  What may I do for you then, Knight?”

“I understand the need for haste and I know why we’re heading where we are, but I have concerns.”

 

“About?”

 

“You.  No one would find fault if you needed to turn around and find your husband or go to the castle to see that Kandilihar was safe against the threat that Lehne seems to think was about the fall upon us.”

 

“I’m not the man to put his own needs above the needs of others,” Jared reprimanded.

 

“Of course not, but it would be remiss of me not to remind you that you need to take care of yourself also.  Let us take the watch tonight and sleep, Sire.  Whatever was given to you, your body has not recovered fully and what will the Torugans do to us when you show up, a shadow of the warrior they think you to be?”

 

Jared sighed because Cohen was right.  He was trying to take the same watch as the others but in the end, he was holding them back because he wasn’t regaining his strength fast enough.  A few days under Megan’s potions and the lack of food shouldn’t have been as debilitating as it was, except that Jared had been pushing himself beyond his reserves to keep moving.  

 

“If nothing else, sleep for me.  Kane would have my head if he could see you right now, not to mention the husband you think could best me.”  Cohen eyed him then and the playful glint was back in his eyes.  “I’d be afraid of the Queen Consort right now too.  She has a wicked tongue on her good days and it’s like a whiplash in her displeasure.  I think I’d rather face her brother.”

 

Jared laughed then.  “Alright, I concede.  Divide the watch among you tonight and leave me to sleep.”

 

“And take these,” Cohen held out a wrapped bag and when Jared opened it he found dried fish and fruits.  “You’ve been eating rations and that won’t help either.  Allow Benedict and I a little time to scavenge and we’ll make sure we keep our bags filled while you eat enough to undo what your sister has done.”

 

It was crossing a line in some ways, but it was what Kane would have done.  Or Murray for that matter.  Jensen would have picked up on it right away and Danneel would have upbraided them all for not seeing to their king’s needs immediately.  

 

“Thank you.”

 

Cohen nodded, but as he walked away Jared saw the way the tension seemed to leave his shoulders.  When he sat in front of Lehne and Benedict and nodded to the scout, Jared saw the other man smile in return.  He should have realized they’d be worried about it the same as he’d been but he’d been so focused on getting to the Torugan and stopping a war that he wasn’t thinking about the condition he’d be in when he arrived.

 

At the end of the day, he did feel better for the extra food and water and that night he slept soundly through the night, even if he did miss his lovers’ arms.

 

 

“We’re close,” Able said softly, hunched close to the ground to check the tracks.

 

Jensen took a deep breath and couldn’t help but tap the sword at his hip.  He’d kept it close the whole trip but they’d had no use for it so far.  They traveled fast and light and no one stopped the Kandili cavalry without reason or cost.  It was Jared’s sword, fallen when he’d been abducted at the fire.  Murray had Jensen’s sword, stowed as a second weapon on his back.  Murray was almost as good with two swords as he was one, almost as good as Jensen was with two, but Jared’s sword wasn’t meant to be paired with another so Jensen gave his knight the second to use in their need.  

 

Kane was at Jensen’s back, Murray close by as they waited on Able to give them an update.  “We’re really close.  See the way the sand is shifting?  We wouldn’t see anything if he’d passed long ago.”

 

“Where to then, before the marks disappear completely?” Jensen demanded.  He appreciated the little lessons Able gave as he pointed things out to Jensen but they were close and the need to see his husband was growing on him worse than the darkness of his dreams lately. 

 

Able pointed around an outcropping of rock and Jensen nodded.  “Mount up,” he ordered.

 

Though Jensen had trained with the knights, he had never led them in battle but they followed without question.  It wasn’t that he was Jared’s husband, or that he was the Prince Consort.  If it had been those things, they would have looked to Kane to be certain there was no second guessing.  He didn’t know who had talked about it, but he’d heard the whispered ‘ward’ one night along the fires and the speculative looks had begun then.  Jensen’s confidence with the knights gave credence to the title though and they followed him as they would Jared or Kane.  

 

Before he could reach his horse there was a yell and Jensen knew the voice.  Without thought of the others, Jensen ran towards his husband’s voice and the clanging of steal.  

 

Past the rock ledge was an opening in the rock face that burrowed back into what could be caverns.  Jensen knew it probably was a deep cavern system because he knew that they were close to the meeting area of the clans.  They didn’t often congregate to the location but it had been clear from the beginning that Jared was heading there, though they had been forced to move slower and look for their passage because Jensen didn’t know the exact location.

 

He didn’t give himself time to do more than a quick appraisal as he moved in.  Jared was in the center of a melee with Benedict, Cohen, and a Torugan that Jensen could only assume was the Lehne that had help his husband escape from Pelagia.  

 

They were surrounded by Torugans, some fighting, some watching, and Jensen knew he was seeing a trial to speak.  He knew that Jared wasn’t in mortal danger but he had no idea if Jared knew that.  It didn’t matter though because Jensen was going to reach his husband’s side no matter what else happened.

 

He gave no warning, but even as he struck hard against the first man in his way, he saw Kane to one side and Murray on the other, following him in.  He didn’t need to look behind him to know the rest of Jared’s men were there as well.

 

The Torugans turned quickly, adapting to the newcomers and the initial surprise was short lived as the warriors turned their focus.  Jensen swung his sword high, knowing the Torugan tactics would dictate he move aside rather than under the blow, so he moved his knee into the path.  The man fell and Jensen pushed forward.  There was little work for a sword this close to the Torugan but Jensen used the hilt to his advantage and more than one warrior fell to the taste of it.  Jensen kept moving, all the while watching his opponents to find the one man he needed.  He knew it wouldn’t end until the clan’s strongest fighter was downed, but Jared didn’t and he hadn’t been able to teach his husband how to read the subtle signs of leadership among the Torugans.    

 

He heard his name shouted and Jensen turned quickly, the flat of the sword blade against his vambrance to block a long knife.  Jensen kicked out, catching his opponent unawares and pressed onward.  He wanted to shout his husband’s name but feared to distract him with it.  He didn’t have time to think better of it anyway because another foe was there between them and though Jensen was trying to down them without injury the Torugan didn’t give up easily.

 

Jensen dropped to his knee to avoid a blow and swung out, knocking the Torugan off his feet.  A long knife came up but Jensen blocked it, managing to pull it from the warrior’s grip.  He held it tight, turning it against its wielder.  He pressed the knife against his throat, hard enough to draw blood but no more.  

 

“Enough!”

 

As one, the Torugans backed away, leaving the Kandili in the center of it all, with Jensen and the leader of the clans under his knife.

 

  


 

The Torugans backed away as swiftly as they’d attacked and Jared and his men were left gaping with it.  Jared wanted to move because in the center of it all was his husband, a Torugan knife to a warrior’s throat.  Murray and Kane were close to him, having followed Jensen into the battle.  The men looked none the worse for their travels and Jared wanted to get a moment alone with them to see what had happened but there was no time yet.   
  


“Will you guarantee our people’s safety?” Jensen asked the man beneath him.  

 

Lehne was at Jared’s side and though the corner of his eye Jared could see the man’s approval.  

 

“If I don’t?”

 

“I slit your throat and we’ll see if your successor can best me,” Jensen said calmly.   

  
The man laughed.  “You and your men are safe with us.  What is your name stranger?”

 

Jensen leaned back and stood, offering a hand up to the man.  “I am Jensen, Prince Consort of Kandilihar.”

 

“I am Ruden.  I have heard of the Kandili cavalry being fierce in battle, but I had not heard that the Pelagian Prince was as well.”

 

“Some things you have to see to believe,” Jensen answered with a grin.

 

It was more than Jared could take.  He’d been half out of his mind with fear for his spouses and here was Jensen before him.  Jared had seen him enter the fray, seen his husband glorious with the blade of the Kandilihar king in his hand.  He had lost track of him in the fight but every glance was more graceful than the next.  His husband was magnificent in any arena but Jared had never seen him in battle.  Nor did he know how Jensen had been able to stop the fight the way he had.

  
“Jensen?”

 

Lehne moved away from him to greet Ruden and for a moment Jared didn’t care what happened next.  Jensen turned to look at him and his breath was stuck in his throat.  He was finally in front of his husband and he couldn’t move, he couldn’t even breathe.  

 

Jensen didn’t seem to be in the same predicament because a moment later Jensen was pulling their lips together in a fierce kiss.  There were catcalls from his own men but all Jared could do was pull Jensen closer.  

 

“We are seeing a great reunion, it would seem,” Ruden said into the following silence.

 

Jared pulled back then, but just enough to look Jensen in the eye.  “Hello husband,” he whispered.  

 

  
Jensen laughed, running a hand over Jared’s face.  “You’ve led me on a chase.  I thought we were done with that since the wedding.”

 

It was said in jest, but Jared couldn’t help his need to speak his heart.  “Jensen, what my sister-”

 

  
“This is not the place or time, but I know,” Jensen said softly.  There was a sadness that lingered behind his eyes and Jared hated that his family had put it there.  “Tell me, are you well then?  We had news of your escape and your plan but are you well?”

 

Jared wanted to chide Jensen for asking in front of a strange people but Jensen knew them far better than Jared and he obviously thought it safe.  “I am well.  I feared for you though with my sister looking for you.”

 

“She has yet to find me and I plan to keep it that way.  I doubt she’ll be looking in Toruga either way.”

 

Lehn came forward then with Ruden at his side.  “You have earned the right to speak, Jensen of Kandilihar.”

 

“Jared?”

 

It was almost comical, the way Jensen would defer to him in this when it was his abilities that had given them the right.  “Perhaps the lesson on diplomacy would be best illustrated than taught.”

 

Jensen gave him a hard look that Jared knew he would answer for later, but then Jensen turned to look at the gathering of people.  He took a deep breath and Jared watched his husband gather himself.  Lehne stepped forward quickly, speaking into Jensen’s ear for a moment before stepping away.

 

When Jensen spoke, his voice was clear and Jared wanted nothing more than to stand behind him but it would only make Jensen seem weak in their eyes.  It wouldn’t be the show of strength Jared wanted it to be.

 

“I am Jensen, Prince Consort of Kandilihar.  In your circle I come to join my husband, King Jared.  We come in need of aid.  King Stuart sent an emissary under the guise of truce to my family’s home and butchered the Pelagian royal family.  My brothers and sisters were killed by Princess Megan of Donara who now flies the Torugan flag over my ancestral home.  King Alan never gave you cause for this betrayal, nor has my family.  Stuart has been led astray by the Princess of Donara.”

 

A ripple ran through the crowd and Jared wasn’t sure what had affected them but Jensen seemed to have been looking for it.  

 

“Where Stuart once walked with the Fathers, he now takes his council from another man’s wife, taking vengeance on her family for a wrong done by a man that is no longer alive.  She is taking vengeance on the innocent and doing so in the Torugan name.”

 

Jared did step forward then, placing his hands on Jensen’s shoulders, allowing his husband to feel his presence at his back when he seemed to falter.  Jared didn’t know how to give him comfort but it seemed to help.  Jensen nodded but when Jared moved to step away, Jensen took his hand and held it firmly.

 

“We ask the shama to look at Stuart’s words and decide if he is still walking with the Fathers, or ifhe is shama'che and it is time for a new King to take his place.”

 

 

Kane watched the gathered clans of Toruga as they settled into their debate.  Some moved away into the caverns and it was there that Jared and Jensen were led by Lehne.  His position was clear enough on the matter, though Kane figured he’d be back among them before long with the details.  Kane wanted to hear the whole story from Jared himself but he’d yet to get a chance for that.

 

Murray was at his side though and there was a smugness about him that made Kane smirk.  “Yes, you did tell me.”

 

Murray let out a small laugh at that.  “I always wanted to test him against a Torugan but it seemed unwise to ask delegates to fight with him.”

 

“King Gerald would have disagreed.  He believed it showed them the strength of his heir.”

 

“And if Jared had lost a fight?”

 

Kane shook his head, his mirth lost momentarily.  “Jared didn’t have the option to lose.”

 

Murray nodded in understanding but backed off then as the King of Kandilihar came close.  Kane watched as Murray went to intercept Jensen as he spoke to the men and women who were not part of the debate at that point.  

 

Kane smiled at Jared and he braced his hand against Jared’s neck, taking a moment to check him over.  He looked too thin, like he hadn’t had enough food or sleep but other than that he looked healthy.  

 

Jared smiled as he mirrored Kane.  “It’s good to see you safe brother,” the King said.    

  
“You as well.  I was afraid if we didn’t find you soon your husband was going to run ahead without us.”

 

“How is he?”

 

The concern in Jared’s voice made Kane smile again.  Kane liked Jensen – he had since he’d met the Prince years before under a flag of truce – and if he’d ever doubted how the Prince Consort felt, this journey would have ended it.  The love and affection of the Kandili Triune was returned by each of its members.

 

“Exhausted, but he’ll fare better with you close by.”  

 

“That’s two of us,” Jared agreed.  “And Murray?”

 

“Better now that Jensen is smiling again.  I may never hear the end of it though, how his ward found and defeated the leader of the melee.”

 

Jared let out a laugh and Kane could see from the way Cohen and Benedict reacted out of his periphery that it had been too long since it had happened.  Jensen responded to it too, walking away from the others to stand with Jared.  

  
Benedict joined them as well.  “Your Majesty,” he bowed slightly to the King and the Prince Consort.  “We have arranged for a place to clean up and to eat.  Lehne suggested we take advantage of the lull.  Soon enough they’ll ask you to join them.” 

 

“Show the way then,” Jensen answered.

 

Kane took up position behind the King and Prince Consort with Murray and took comfort in knowing they were momentarily safe.  

 

 

The debate went on for hours with Jared and Jensen both being asked to speak.  Lehne went as well and the men that followed them were asked to talk about what they’d seen.  It wasn’t that they were disbelieved but the Torugans could split hairs finely and what Jensen had asked was a huge break from tradition.  In the written histories, the Torugan had never broken faith with their king or their allies.  They had done one without knowing Stuart’s intent and they were being asked to do the other now.  

 

Jensen was lying on a soft mat with Jared asleep in his arms.  They didn’t have the privacy to do the things he wanted to but he was lucky enough to get this time, sleeping between summons.  With Jared there, he didn’t get the nightmares – or maybe he wasn’t sleeping long enough for it – but this time when he woke Lehne was sitting across from him, watching.  

 

“He is a brave man,” Lehne said softly.  

 

“The bravest I have met,” Jensen said as he sat up, slowly moving until Jared’s head was resting on his thigh and Jensen could rest his back against the wall.  

 

 “I have not had the opportunity to express my regret that I had anything to do with the attack on your family.”

  
Jensen had heard the man’s story and though part of him raged at how he had kidnapped Jared in the first place, Jared was the one that said Lehne had snuck a knife into his ropes before they’d reached Pelagia.  That Megan had kept Jared incapacitated too long to make their escape didn’t change that.  That Lehne was standing before his people to try to get their help so that Joshua could get his throne back did.  

 

“As do I.  I can see that you are a man of honor and Megan used that against you.  I have been duped by her as well and I know how charming she can be.”

 

“Really?”  It was obvious that whatever else had been revealed about Jensen’s abduction that this part at least had been quiet.

 

“When I married Jared, his sister said she would speak to me about the Kandili traditions.” Jensen smiled.  “You’re Torugan.  Can you figure out their traditions?”

 

“Just the idea of a wife makes me dizzy.  Having two spouses seems more trouble than it's worth.”  

 

Jensen laughed softly.  “It was a lot to take in and they have even stranger traditions for the Triune before the first heir is born.  Megan was to teach me of those.  What she did was to set up a series of misunderstandings that would have ruined our marriage.  Then she had me abducted.  I think she wanted to be the one to wield the knife herself but she didn’t have the chance.  Kane and Murray survived the attack and managed to get word to Jared so that they could find me.  Megan had a room full of witnesses for the time I was taken and though we suspected her there was no way to prove it.”

 

“King Alan was always a friend to us.  He drove a hard bargain but he treated us fairly.  I hope, in time, we can aid your brother and find a way to mend what has happened between our people even though we cannot possibly undo the harm we have done.”

 

Jensen took the words for what they were.  Honest and true and what he had come to expect from the Torugans.  “Time only will tell us what we can mend.  For now, I would settle with a thanks for caring for my husband.  He is too stubborn for his own good.”

 

“I am only as stubborn as I need to be to make my husband and wife see sense on occasion,” Jared answered sleepily, not moving his head out of Jensen’s lap.  

  
“See, stubborn.”

 

Lehne smiled but he stood.  “They have reached a decision now.”

 

“And?” Jared asked.

 

“It is Ruden’s place to speak.”

 

Jared sighed but he pulled himself off of Jensen’s lap and sat up, stretching as he did so.  Kane and Murray joined them as Jensen got up off the mat.  “Let’s see what they say.  Either way, I have the feeling we’ll be making plans half the night.”

 

Lehne led them back out of the cavern and the rest of their men joined them.  The Torugans seemed no more ready to speak than they had been before but as Jensen took position in the center of the makeshift arena they quieted.  

 

“What answer have you?”

 

Ruden smiled at Jensen’s manner, but Jensen knew better than to pull punches with the Torugans.  They believed that the strongest leaders were the most cunning.  Battles weren’t won by might alone, but by strategy and knowing an enemy.  The shifting roles the Torugan adapted were more about subterfuge than anything else.  That Jensen had learned it at a young age  as he sat with an aged Torugan diplomat who didn’t think Jensen was old enough to retain it was perhaps the only reason he understood at all.  

 

“We cannot change what has happened, and for that we are aggrieved.  The royal family of Pelagia has always treated us fairly.  The use of a ruse to gain entry into the castle is not something we can condone.  The use of a woman not of our kingdom is something we cannot condone.  Princess Megan’s actions should reflect on her own homeland and the people who have molded her into the vulture she has become but she flies our flag in King Stuart’s name and this, above all else, we cannot condone.  I will lead the people from the deserts to help King Joshua regain his throne.  When we are done there, we will find Stuart and see that he has been played false by the Princess, or that his crown is removed.”

 

There were no cheers or celebrations.  For Jensen it meant an army moving against the castle that had been his home.  It meant letting a foreign army run across Pelagian land to oust his sister-in-law.  It meant, in the end, having to comfort his husband when his sister met justice.  

 

“Thank you,” he said softly.

 

Ruden nodded.  “We will leave come sunrise.  Take your rest horsemen.  We will see to your provisions.  You have had a long journey behind you.  A new one is best started fresh.”

 

  


  
  
Men were posted in the cavern entrance where the Kandili were given space to bunk down for the night.  The guards were set and Jared and Jensen were given a room of their own.  Jensen took no time in stripping his husband down and pulling him onto the mat.  He took too little care opening himself up and it was more than the burn he was used to as Jared pressed inside his body but Jensen didn’t care.  Jared was chanting his name against the skin of his shoulder as he pulled him close, stilling the words with his lips.  

 

“I don’t think this is how they meant us to spend the night,” Jared panted as Jensen moved over his body, hips rolling as he sat astride Jared’s hips.  

 

“Well rested,” Jensen answered with a soft laugh.  “I wouldn’t be able to sleep until you were mine again.”

 

Jared pulled at him then and Jensen gave way, let his husband flip them over so that Jared could press his weight into him, thrusting hard and fast as Jensen tried to hide the moans and gasps that he was sure the men outside the room could hear.  

 

“Always yours,” Jared replied.  “Since the moment I saw you, I was yours.”

 

Jensen pulled his lips against his again, shutting him up effectively.  He could feel his lover shivering with the intensity of what he was feeling – what they were both feeling – and it wouldn’t be long before he was spilling inside Jensen’s body.  

  
“And since that clumsy moment where you confessed your heart, I realized that I was already yours.”

  
Jared hissed, dropping his head as his hips stilled, coming inside of Jensen.  Jensen reached between them and it only took a few pulls before he was spilling over his fist and onto his husband’s stomach.

 

Jared turned his head and pressed a chaste kiss to Jensen’s lips and they kissed lazily for a few minutes before Jared pulled away.  When he settled on the mat next to Jensen, Jensen let his head rest on Jared’s chest and sighed.

 

“Well make this work, Jensen,” Jared said softly.  “We’ll get Joshua on the throne and then we’ll be home with Danneel before the baby comes.”

 

Jensen took a deep breath.  “Of course we will.”  He didn’t believe it any more than Jared did, but it wasn’t lying if they both knew it, right?

 

“Good night, love.”  Jared said, pressing one last kiss to Jensen’s temple.

 

Jensen closed his eyes, paying that he didn’t dream tonight, before he settled in.  “Good night, husband mine.” 

  
  


  
Jensen woke the next morning and buried his nose in his husband’s hair, breathing deeply.  It didn’t make the darkness of his dreams any lighter, but having Jared close again made his heart lighter all the same.  After the weeks spent trying to find his husband, Jensen wanted nothing more than to stay buried there, but he knew better.  His brother was fighting to gain control of the Pelagian crown and Danneel was ruling Kandilihar alone.  Jared had been betrayed by his sister and she’d killed Jensen’s parents and three of his older brothers and one of his sisters.  He knew what Jared wanted to do next but he didn’t know the plan and Jensen knew, finally, where he had to go to get ahead of Megan.  

  
His dreams had been darker and darker lately and Jensen had figured out why.  His father had talked about having premonitions from time to time, as had Joshua.  It didn’t happen often, but it had helped his father rule and Jensen knew that Joshua would use it for the same good.  Jensen was getting something more than just the premonitions of his people though.  He was getting the premonitions of the entire realm.  He couldn’t leave that behind and he knew now that Jared’s sister wouldn’t either.

 

Jared was starting to wake and what hope Jensen had held for a few quiet minutes with his husband was ended when Lehne came into the room.  Jensen didn’t know much about the man but he saw the way Murray and Kane were more aware with him around.  They were on their best behavior and Jensen wasn’t sure if it was to try to impress the Torugan or if it was to intimidate him.  

  
When they were cleaned up and dressed they stood on the wall of the sandkeep and Jensen felt Jared press a kiss into his temple.  They were up there alone with Lehne and the two knights.  Soon the others would join them, ready for the next step of their journey.

 

“I want to go home,” Jensen said softly, “but I can’t yet.  You and Danneel have been trying to get me to talk about my dreams for months Jared and I ignored it.  Last night, I think I know it was about.  What they’ve all been about.  They’re about the Crown of Kingdoms.  I think something is coming and the only way to head it off is to listen to them.”

  
When Jared turned sad eyes to Jensen, he knew then that he’d underestimated his husband.  He already knew.  “I have to do this.”

 

“I know.  I want to stay with you.”

 

Jensen gave Jared the same sad smile in return.  “I know.  You have to take care of the others though.  Joshua will be a good king, but he isn’t the warrior that you are.  He’ll need your counsel without me there.”

  
“And you have to find the crown.”  Jensen took a deep breath but Jared just continued.  “I’ve believe my whole life that the Kingdom of Crowns was a better place than the Six Lakes Realm.  If you can find it Jensen, I would bow to the High King without hesitation.  We’re so disconnected from one another and in who we should be that we’ve become the lion among the lambs, instead of the shepards.  As much as it pains me to leave you so soon, I know you have to do this, just as I have to return to Pelagia and then home.”

 

“I will miss you.  If there was another way-”

 

“If there was another way we wouldn’t be here right now, Jensen.  I’ve paid attention Jensen and I know what you dream.  You think it’s a coincidence that my sister has come after you and no one else?  That she killed your family because they wouldn’t give you to her?  Megan knows, somehow, about your dreams.  She won’t stop until she has the crown, no matter if it’s real or just a trinket sold at a common street fair.”

 

Lehne looked at them, but his eyes stayed on Jensen.  “You have dreams?”

 

Jensen nodded.  “Every night for months.”  He didn’t need to say they were prophetic.  He could see the belief in the Torugan’s eyes.  

 

Lehne looked out across the desert, watched the changing colors as the sun began to make its way above the horizon.  “We have a long history, much like the Kandili, that is not told in books.  We carry our tradition in our hearts, to share as we find those willing to listen.  One of the stories was of a different time and place; a story about a seer who sat with kings and gave them council.  He was betrayed by a young King who believed he had the right to challenge them.  He had been fed lies, but in the end he ended the rule of the High King and he repented, knowing the lies for what they’d been.  When the High King fell, the young King took the crown from his brow and hid it away, swearing to keep it for the rightful heir.”

  
Jensen listened intently but he could feel Jared’s hand on his arm tightening in a way his husband wasn’t aware of.  

 

“A prophecy followed in the wake of the High King’s death; a prophecy that spoke of oceans of green and dreams of portent that would mark the return of his heir.”

 

Jensen knew what Lehne was hinting at but Jensen knew he couldn’t be what Lehne spoke of.  He sighed.  “Then it seems he will come again and it is time for us to find his crown for him.”

 

“Jensen-”

 

Jared wanted to believe but Jensen wasn’t unfettered as the High Kings of old had been.  Jensen was a Pelagian Prince and had become part of the Kandilihar Triune when he’d married Jared and Danneel.                   

 

“Whoever it is, we have to do our part,” Jensen reached up and kissed Jared softly then, ignoring the men around them.  “I dreamed last night.  I dreamed of our beautiful wife standing on the highest walls of the castle.  She had a beautiful, curly haired child in her arms but she was dressed in red armor.  As magnificent as she was to behold though, she was surrounded by chains that were trying to drag her down.”

 

Jensen watched as Jared took a deep breath and he knew he was trying to calm himself from the image.  Jared’s hand moved up to grip the back of Jensen’s neck, taking comfort in one of his spouses.  “Tomorrow, you ride Jared,” Jensen said softly.  “You settle Pelagia and in the meantime you get word to Danneel and find out what is happening to our wife and our home.”

 

“And where will you go next, Jensen?”  

 

“Donara.”

 

“My sister’s kingdom?  Are you mad?”

 

Jensen looked at Kane and Murray, knowing they would accompany him wherever he went.  They both nodded in approval while Lehne watched with interest.

 

“The Donaran libraries boast that they have a copy of every book known.  They have ancient scrolls and transcripts of the folklore of the hill people.  If there is truth in the stories of the Crown and the secrets of the High King then it would be in those libraries.”

  
Jared nodded and Jensen pulled his husband close, allowing himself the moment to hold him and know he was safe.  Jared’s arms wrapped him tight and he could feel the tremor in his husband’s arms from the pain of their coming separation.

 

Jensen didn’t know what would happen next or if they’d find their way to one another again, but he had his part to play in this battle and he couldn’t sit aside while the waves crashed down on them.  

  
Jared would find his way to Danneel and keep their wife safe.  He would aid Joshua in taking the Pelagian throne back from Jared’s sister.  And Jensen would find the one thing that would bind them all together, that would keep the kingdoms from tearing themselves apart again and rekindling the bloody reign that Jared’s father had begun.

 

If Jensen went home to Kandilihar ever again, if he succeeded in his quest, he could turn the war back and bring peace to the Six Lakes Realm again.  Jensen closed his eyes and let the moment seep in, the scent and feel of his husband around him and their allies behind them.  

  
“I will come home to you Jared,” he whispered for his husband’s ears only.  “I will come home and when I do, it will be upon the changing tides.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to the [](http://spn-j2-bigbang.livejournal.com/profile)[spn_j2_bigbang](http://spn-j2-bigbang.livejournal.com/) mods for running this challenge! I adore this challenge and can't wait to sit back and read all the great stories that have come from this now :P Also, to[](http://tiggeratl1.livejournal.com/profile)[tiggeratl1](http://tiggeratl1.livejournal.com/) who did the art for the original story and signed on for part two :P Thank you so much hon! It was awesome to work with you again! And lastly to my beta, [](http://smidgeson.livejournal.com/profile)[smidgeson](http://smidgeson.livejournal.com/) who deserves a medal for always making me a better writer even though I send things to her late and she doesn't always get to see the whole thing before anyone else does. You are amazing and I can't thank you enough for all your help! Hope you enjoy the whole :P Oh... and one more... for [](http://phillydogg.livejournal.com/profile)[phillydogg](http://phillydogg.livejournal.com/) because [Kingdom of Crowns ](http://hunters-retreat.livejournal.com/422048.html)was his idea in the first place and if he hadn't wanted me to write part one there would never have been part two :P


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